‘I didn’t expect it to be so … awful. I loved Dad’s pigs when I came to Gritton that summer. They were the best thing about the place. They were in cages for a few weeks when they farrowed, and I didn’t like that, but Dad explained why it was necessary. For the rest of their lives they were outside. I never realised Kirsty kept them all their lives … like this. I just sat in the barn staring at them. I must have been in a kind of trance. I didn’t hear the fire on the moor coming closer. Not until the bales by the door caught fire.’

‘How long were you in there?’

‘I’m not sure. I sat and stared and stared and then suddenly the straw caught at the end and it went up in a crazy whoomph. I kept trying to get to the barn door but it was no good. The heat was too much.’

‘It must have been terrifying,’ I said.

She shrugged. ‘It was.’

‘Are you staying over with your dad?’ Jai asked.

‘Yes. I arrived this morning. It was good to see him, and he was delighted to see me. He even showed me his pigs playing fetch, just like the old days. But it was all a bit desperate – I think … well, he’s not okay about Violet. So I said I’d stay a while. Cancelled my training clients.’ She wiped a tear from her cheek. ‘It was nice to feel he wanted me around. It wasn’t always the case.’

I could see Tony across the yard, gently guiding a pig away from the smoking barn. One of the metal hurdles fell over, and Jai jumped up and went over to help.

‘Didn’t your dad want you around before?’ I said to Bex.

‘You know he sent me away to live with my aunt. I’m sure he blamed me for what happened with Tim.’

‘Sorry, Bex, you’ll have to explain.’

‘Tim was the reason our mum had a breakdown and left us. Dad said she never really settled here even before that. That he was a fool to think she’d be happy. He said we’re so arrogant in this country – we assume someone from the Ukraine should feel blessed to be here at all. But he was only trying to make me feel better. I know the real reason she left. She couldn’t bear to be near me after what happened to Tim.’

‘Who was Tim?’

‘Tim was my brother. My twin.’

Bex’s twin? ‘Oh no,’ I said. ‘I’m so sorry, I didn’t know.’

‘I suppose you wouldn’t.’

‘Do you mind me asking what happened? How Tim died?’