He’s fussing in the kitchen, and she’s letting him, and all the time he’s firing off questions about how Wendy found the package, about her grandmother, and she’s telling him about Meggie’s stories and all Grunnie is holding back. She hears herself gabbling, the rise and fall of her voice, and it’s intoxicating to feel … what? Perhaps just to feel.

The spanakopita smells wonderful. She flakes the filo crust with her fork, tasting the air, its nutmeg and butter and poppyseeds, the rich, cheesy filling.

Gideon leans forward, puts down his fork. So, what’s wrong?

Wrong? Nothing. This looks sublime.

But you’re not eating. You’re … you’re playing with your food there, missy. A laugh but it’s a Gideon laugh, a tell-me laugh, hard to ignore.

She shrugs. And she’s grateful for the sudden racket at the door, an aggrieved insistence that somebody do something.

Allee-Cat purrs smugly by the heater as they eat the spanakopita and talk about the gutting of herring.

Sure you don’t mind having him inside?

As if I have a choice. Persistent, isn’t he?

Yep. Easier to submit to his every whim, I’ve always found.

And no-one will get hurt?

He throws a look at Allee-Cat. She’s a faster learner, eh, mate.

Gideon doesn’t stay late, and gives her a quick hug before leaving. The cat, trotting at his heels, glances back from the driveway. A wholly approving glance, she thinks. The cat equivalent of a thumbs-up.

She pours the last of the wine, picks up Grunnie’s book and settles back on the armchair to read, but has trouble focusing. Her eyes are blurred. What’s wrong with her tonight? Taking off her glasses, she looks across to the empty grate of the fireplace, and for a moment it turns red and amber-gold in her imagination. She remembers her grandmother’s hair, a washed-out sandy ginger, a shadow of the flaming red of the young Meggie she’d never seen but had been told about. Hair down to her waist. Grunnie always said her grandfather had begged her never to cut it, and she hadn’t until after he died.

Meggie and Magnus. Her thoughts keep returning to the story of a gutting girl and a wee cooper boy.