‘You know,’ said Hunter, with an appreciative smile, ‘now that I’ve bought all of YouGenetics, you’re making me think that we should rename it. It’s up to you, Lucy. Give it some thought over the next few weeks.’

‘I already know,’ said Lucy. ‘EpiFutures.’

‘To EpiFutures!’ said Hunter, knocking back another shot. ‘I love it. And Francis, I am so sorry about disrupting your experiments and disturbing the denizens of the forest. I had no idea this was a nature reserve. I’m going to send the pilot home before he needs to turn on all the lights and I’ll get a car sent down.’

Hunter took out his phone.

‘I’m afraid there’s no signal here,’ said Francis, ‘but we can go up and tell the pilot and, if you want to find out about the wilding project, you can come for a walk with me.’

‘That sounds great,’ said Hunter.

Francis lent Hunter a pair of heavy boots to replace his suede loafers, took his notebook from the high shelf by the front door and the two men set off. Olivia led Lucy back to the sofa. When they could no longer hear Hunter’s booming enthusiasm, let alone Francis’s quiet answers, the two friends burst out laughing, sprawled next to each other on the cushions.

‘What was that?’ said Olivia, clasping Lucy’s forearm and turning around to look at her. ‘He’s a bit mad! But much kinder than I’d imagined.’

‘I really didn’t expect him to be so supportive,’ said Lucy.

‘He’s obviously in love with you.’

‘God, I hope not. I need an affair with Hunter like …’

‘A hole in the head?’

‘God, no,’ said Lucy, ‘not nearly as much as a hole in the head.’

Later she climbed slowly to her room and collapsed on the bed. She always had to read something, however briefly, before going to sleep and so she switched on the bedside light and picked up the novel she had been hurtling through until she checked into the hospital. Since then, she seemed stuck on the same page and again today, before she could turn that heavy page, the book slipped from her hands as she tumbled into sleep.

When she woke, she saw the light of her lamp smeared across the glassy blackness of the window. She had no idea whether it was late afternoon or the middle of the night. Opening her bedroom door, she heard a brief interchange from downstairs and embarked again on the slow descent to the sitting room, guessing that it must still be quite early and that she would wake in the middle of the night if she rested any longer. She found Olivia on the sofa with her laptop on her raised knees, and Francis reading at the other end, his legs entangled with hers.

‘Has Hunter left?’ she asked, sitting down in the armchair nearest the fire.