It’s not rude. I don’t own Leo. He’s allowed to go to the woods, or to his office at the stately home, or, of course, anywhere he wants. It’s not easy for us to keep track of the days, and for him to count up to when it’s been seven must be tricky. My novelty has worn off. I’ll just wander around, practising my Italian, until I find him.

Maybe another ghost has turned up.

That thought stops me in my tracks. A new ghost would be magical. It’s totally possible that someone from further down the line could have caught a train up here. A new person in my life would be incredible. Wild. Maybe it would be a girl.

It wouldn’t be the right girl.

I follow the path Leo takes into the woods and check each of his dens. They are all places he’s discovered over the years that were basically already there because whatever modifications he makes are gone by the morning. All the same, he spends some days building a magnificent tree house, like Lara with her knitting, knowing it’ll be gone the next day, but not caring.

I tramp through the woods, not feeling the cold, not noticing the mud. I start with his main den, the one he took me to the first time I came. He’s not up there. I go to the one in a hollow tree, the one at the top of a slope that he calls the Lookout, the one that’s almost in a hole in the ground down by the river. He’s nowhere.

I check the time. That took over an hour and I’m not sure what to do next. I visit the platform again, look in the cafe, under the seats in the ticket office.

It’s quite a long walk up to Lanhydrock House, and I take it slowly, wishing I could smell the air around me. It’s slightly warmer here than it is at home today, and I’m sure it would have that spring smell. There are things starting to unfurl all around me in these woods. Shoots are poking up through the earth. The leaves on the trees are mainly buds. I cross a little road and set off up a driveway that is so long that I can’t see the house at the end of it. The land around it is grassy and hilly. Everything is so beautiful.

I miss life. I wish I could see this spring turning into summer.