As we walked along the corridor Thea pointed to a board on the wall on which hung all kinds of keys. ‘The bottom left key is the one to my car. The garage isn’t locked, and the car’s always full of fuel. No need to ask, dear. Just help yourself.’

She was so kind. All I wanted to do was crawl back up to my room and be ashamed of myself in private, but Thea was having none of that. ‘Come and sit with me. The doctor is in his study so we won’t be disturbed.’

I followed her into a huge kitchen with units along two walls, an Aga under a wooden mantelpiece and a dresser stretching the length of the third wall. The fourth wall consisted of windows looking out over the garden. A long table filled the central space. It felt warm and more than a little disorganised.

‘Sit down. I’m going to make you one of my special teas.’

‘There’s no need, Thea,’ I said. ‘I’m happy to go back up and make my own.’

On my first day Thea had presented me with a tin of home-filled tea bags. ‘These are my own brew,’ she had said. ‘They’re comforting and warming – perfect for just before bed. You’ll have a wonderful night’s sleep.’ And she was right. I always made a cup before bed and was out like a light every night.

‘I’m going to make you an extra-special version tonight,’ she said. ‘It’ll calm you, and if you’re going to be sorting things out tomorrow, you need to be calm, don’t you?’

I couldn’t argue with that, so I sat with her and chatted about nothing very much – I seem to remember she told me about some of the foibles of her car – while I sipped her delicious tea. It certainly did the trick because by the time I went upstairs to bed I was feeling much more settled.

But all that was to change.

I went straight to bed and fell into a deep sleep. Later I vaguely remember waking up feeling hot – too hot. I’m sure I threw off the bedclothes and then sat up. I was confused, I think, but I’m not sure why.

That is the last thing I remember until I woke up back in Thea’s kitchen, a blanket around my shoulders, shivering. She was in her dressing gown, rubbing my feet with a warm towel, and my chair was pulled close to the Aga.

I don’t know how I got there. One minute I was in bed, the next I was in the kitchen, cold, disorientated, with Thea in her nightclothes trying to warm me up.

‘Oh, my dear, I didn’t know you were a sleepwalker,’ she said, concern in her voice.