Two stone posts stood in the trees, recalling a time when a grand driveway must have led down into the valley. ‘How sad.’ Bex walked forward and stood between the gateposts. Closed her eyes.

‘Do you remember your mum at all?’ Daniel said, reminding her why she found him both exhilarating and scary.

She took a breath, not sure whether she wanted to talk, then decided she did, and shook her head. ‘I was only three when she left. Sometimes I think I get a glimmer of a memory, but then it dissolves to nothing.’

‘Kirsty said you liked painting and your mum used to do that with you.’

Bex’s heart pulsed faster. What else had Kirsty told him? She looked at Daniel but couldn’t read anything in his wide, clear eyes. ‘I can’t remember,’ she said.

They took the path through a sprinkling of trees towards the beige expanse ahead. ‘Wow, is that it?’ Bex said. It looked like buildings that had been bombed. Piles of rubble where walls once were, surprising stone things rising from the mud, layers of silt over old floors.

‘Yes. The church spire used to stick up above the water, but they knocked it down.’

‘What a shame.’

The destroyed village was laid out in front of them. Bex couldn’t imagine what it must have been like to watch the waters rising. Engulfing your home. A buzzard swooped and cried overhead, its voice so plaintive Bex could imagine it singing for everything that had been lost.

‘I remember your mum,’ Daniel said.

That broke Bex from her imaginings. She turned to look at him. ‘What did you say?’

‘I was only six, but I remember. I found her exotic. She was called Nina, wasn’t she? A foreign name. And I remember a time I went into the shop with Gary to buy sweets. Gary pushed in front of your mum and she smacked him.’

Bex took a step away from Daniel. ‘My mum smacked Gary?’

‘Yes, and shouted at him in Russian or whatever it was she spoke. Gary went nuts. It all kicked off.’

‘God.’

‘He had it coming, Bex. But the village kind of … turned against her after that.’

What a strange story. ‘Why are you telling me this, Daniel?’

He looked straight at her, in that way he had. ‘I wouldn’t want you to think she left because of you.’

Bex felt a thickening in her lungs, making it hard to breathe. He must know. Her voice felt shaky coming out of her throat. ‘Why would I think she left because of me? What has Kirsty told you?’

‘Nothing. It’s just … that’s what kids think, isn’t it? If their parents leave. I never even knew my dad, but it didn’t stop me blaming myself, thinking he left Mum because she got pregnant. It was stupid.’