‘Right, then. Shall we go in?’ Mark asks, before turning and taking the run of steps that descends to the basement at a clipped speed, Jake and Leah following.

It’s different down here. There’s a dank smell in the air, and the long shadow cast by the path and stone steps lends a chill. Mark fiddles with the lock – it’s clearly one that requires a knack – and, for a moment, Leah and Jake stand there, watching him tugging and probing with the key, then casting their eyes around at the broken concrete beneath the window, the rise of brackish moss up the wall to the sill. One of the window panes has a fine crack running through it. Her optimism begins to dip. But then Mark pushes open the door and they file in after him, Leah’s eyes trying to take it all in at once.

Mark is brisk as he leads them through. ‘Bathroom. Bedroom. Living area,’ he announces, with a perfunctory air, while opening doors on to these rooms.

Quickly, she glances into the small bathroom, tucked into the space beneath the steps that lead up to the front door of the main house – cramped but clean. Then the bedroom at the front with an unmade double, the new mattress still encased in plastic wrap, a small wardrobe standing open, a rug, pattern faded, laid over bare wooden boards. The living area is at the back, a large space dominated by French windows opening on to a patio, a hint of the garden beyond in the skirting of lush greenness above the patio wall.

‘What’s in here?’ Leah asks, opening a door to the side, which reveals a small dark room.

When Mark flicks the light switch, it illuminates a space hardly big enough to fit a single bed.

‘It can be Matthew’s room,’ Jake says excitedly, running his hand over the walls as if considering what colour to paint them.

‘Who’s Matthew?’ Mark asks.

‘My seven-year-old. He lives with his mother, but he stays with me sometimes.’

As Jake says this, Leah feels Mark glancing at her with new interest. She can tell he’s making fresh calculations about her and Jake, about their relationship. She wonders how much he knows about them, what Ian has told him.