The ironic thing was, I had actually been happy right before I found it. Maybe happier than I had been in twenty years. I was walking in my favourite part of the woods, the cinnamon smell of leaves underfoot telling me autumn was on its way, with its promise of open fires and forgiving jumpers. I had Brandy on the lead, her small snuffling breaths the only sound, that constant strain on the collar that’s to be expected with a beagle. She had smelled something already, probably, but I hadn’t known that then. It was one of my best times of the day, just her and me, the trusting way she’d come to heel when I called, despite her searching nature. The faint trotting sound of her paws beside my boots.

I had felt pleasantly muzzy with sleep, looking forward to seeing Alex again that night. As I walked, I was thinking about his firm chest, the snarl of hair there I liked to tangle my fingers in, the warm smell of his neck. The way I’d palm my face to his back when he slept, holding on tight. He had stayed at mine two nights ago, and we’d woken up late, teasing each other about how slow we were to get out of bed. When I got up to shower, he’d pulled me back into bed, kissing me hard, starting things up again. He’d made me tea while I was in the bathroom, and I’d stood at the door in my dressing gown to wave him down the path (Audrey next door getting a good gawp), and he’d waved back at me as he reversed his van out.

It was going somewhere, wasn’t it? When I thought of it, I’d feel a pleasant lurch in the pit of my stomach, followed by a burst of worry. Things weren’t ideal, of course – and I would have thought about Anna here, I’m sure. She had been playing on my mind since our run-in the week before. She wasn’t supposed to know about Alex and me – too soon after their split, and likely to muddy the waters with the divorce, he felt. But somehow she had found out, and confronted me in town. She didn’t want him being with me, and was threatening to keep the house and stop him seeing his son if he didn’t end it, Alex said.