‘Okay, it’ll need some work,’ I’m talking nineteen to the dozen, ‘and I’m not even sure we remembered to clear it when we were moving out. Ollie used it as storage space.’

‘Ollie?’

‘My husband.’

‘Your husband?’

‘He’s gone. Back to the UK. It’s just me now.’

‘Ah,’ she says. ‘With your furniture?’

‘Yes, with … everything.’

‘Ah.’ Things seem to be making sense to her.

‘Here.’ I bend down through the pine trees and go into a small clearing. I wait for Stephanie to reach me. She straightens and stands next to me.

‘Look, it might not be what you were expecting, but I’m pretty sure it’s got everything. As soon as I can get more furniture, you can move into the house, if you want to.’

She says nothing. Is she going to swear, turn and walk away? ‘Do you want to see inside?’

Slowly she nods and, if I’m not mistaken, her stare doesn’t convey disbelief and horror: it’s the look of someone falling in love.

‘It’s a gypsy caravan,’ she says slowly.

‘It was here when we bought the house, hidden away. I thought it might be nice for guests. But we were here for such a short time that I didn’t get around to doing anything with it. Well, actually, after my first look inside it, I forgot about it. Life’s been a bit … hectic,’ I say. ‘But I wish I’d remembered it on my first night here alone. At least there’s a bed in it, from what I remember.’

‘You stayed here alone, with no furniture, nothing?’ she asks.

‘Yes.’ I stop on the wooden steps I’m climbing. ‘I just knew I couldn’t go back.’

‘Same,’ says Stephanie, and I don’t know if she’s talking about going back to where she’s just come from, or to where she was before she ended up in that awful room.

I don’t ask. If she wants to tell me she will. Right now, I have to fulfil my promise and find her somewhere of her own to stay. I push the key into the old padlock and turn it. Then I open the half-door, jump down from the steps and let Stephanie up them.

‘There’s a lot of stuff inside that Ollie left behind.’ His golf clubs, the exercise bike and the small electric lawnmower we had before he upsized to the big sit-on one. ‘But there’s a bed and a stove, and we can tidy it up.’ I look at the peeling lavender woodwork. Stephanie is inside it now. Ralph and Tomas have joined us. Tomas is climbing the wooden steps and sits at the top. A red squirrel darts across the grass to a neighbouring tree, to his excitement.

Stephanie comes out and stands on the platform outside the caravan. I hold my breath. She looks at me.