‘Jake will be back in a minute,’ she says, and he nods in understanding.

‘Goodbye,’ he tells her, then breaks eye contact and moves away.

She notes the manner in which he walks, head down and thoughtful, taking his time, sauntering towards the traffic lights. But just as he crosses the road, he puts a hand to his head, lifts his hat, and wipes the sweat from his brow with a hankie. That one gesture gives her pause, reminding her of her father in a way that is painful.

She thinks of how she turned him down about trying out his piano, wishing she hadn’t sounded so hard, so unfriendly. He’s just a lonely man who had been kind to her. Why had she sounded so mean?

‘Is that who I think it was?’ Jake asks.

She looks around and sees him standing there with Matthew. Distractedly, he hands her an ice-cream, his gaze still fixed on the dark figure hurrying up the hill towards the church. ‘He was just saying hello,’ she says, as he settles himself on the bench next to her, untwisting paper from the cone of his Cornetto.

‘Oh, yeah?’ He licks at the ice-cream. ‘I don’t know about that bloke. I’ve heard some things.’

‘What things?’ She tries to keep her voice neutral, concentrates on the ice-cream’s sugary taste on her tongue.

‘Something Ian said. They’re a weird family, apparently.’

‘I thought he was friends with Mark?’

‘Nah. They know each other, but I wouldn’t call them friends. Ian says Mark didn’t grow up with his dad. That he lived with his aunt.’

‘I lived with my aunt.’

‘Yeah, but that was for school, right?’

She nods but doesn’t look him in the eye.

‘He and the dad don’t get on, apparently,’ Jake continues. ‘Some kind of trouble there.’

‘Well, it must have been hard for him after his wife died. Perhaps he couldn’t cope,’ she says reasonably, thinking of her conversation in the garden with Anton. How quiet and reassuring he had seemed.

‘Yeah, but his kids? I mean, surely he’d hold them closer, not push them away.’

You don’t know how it is, she thinks darkly in her head. You don’t know how you’ll react when tragedy strikes. You don’t know to what lengths you’ll go just to cope.

‘And have you noticed the way nobody ever calls to see him, and how he hardly ever goes out? I’m surprised to see him out here in the daylight.’

‘He’s not a vampire, Jake.’

He smiles at the notion, and says: ‘So what were you two talking about?’

‘Nothing. Just saying hello. He’d heard me playing piano. Says he’s got a piano upstairs.’

‘Oh, yeah? I’d better watch out or he’ll be luring you up there to have his wicked way with you.’

She shoves against him playfully, her temper dissipating.