There had been no sign of him in the morning. Or of Sigrid, she thinks to herself and pushes down the worry that has been lurking at in the back of her mind since she realised the door to the second bedroom was ajar and the bed inside it empty. Unmade, granted, but that’s hardly reason to think she slept in it.

Sigrid is an adult, she reminds herself. Both she and Leo have every right in the world to come and go as they please. Two lodgers, that’s all. Two wind-driven souls who knocked on the door to her comfortable existence.

What the hell did I go and let them in for?

*

Twenty minutes later she stops at the bottom of the front steps and grabs hold of the railing. There’s a rushing sound in her ears and a wave of heat rises through her body, reaching boiling point and her face at the same time. As she leans her forehead against the cold iron railing, she hears the sound of the annex door opening. I see, she thinks. So you did come home last night after all.

Then Leo’s voice reaches her.

‘Well, have you called around? Someone has to know where she is. Brynn or Gordon? Billy? He always knows what she’s doing.’

In the silence that follows as Leo listens to the person on the other end, Karen walks up the steps and through the door without looking back. Just as she starts climbing the stairs to the upstairs bathroom, she hears Leo’s voice again.

‘She probably just forgot, I’m sure you’ll hear from her any minute. Or maybe she’ll turn up tomorrow. I’m actually pretty chuffed I don’t have to go into the studio today, I’m bloody hungover, how about you?’

*

‘What was that about?’ Karen says a while later, as she, fresh from the shower and with her face covered with foundation she found at the back of the bathroom cabinet, sits down at the kitchen table.

The foundation smells a bit stale, she muses.

‘Luna,’ Leo replies. ‘We were supposed to record some overdubs today, but Kore can’t get hold of her.’

‘But I thought you were done? Isn’t that what you were celebrating?’

‘We were. But then Luna had this idea last night and we eventually agreed to test it out before she leaves.’

‘So she’s going back home?’ Karen says, making an effort to hide her relief.

Leo tilts his head back and yawns.

‘Yeah, day after tomorrow,’ he says. ‘And she probably can’t come back until the end of next month. But she was supposed to check in with Kore this morning and set a time to meet up in the studio. We only have today and tomorrow.’

‘She’s probably asleep. As hungover as you, perhaps?’

‘Luna? No, she doesn’t drink.’