‘It doesn’t make it any easier.’ She withdraws her hand too, and removes her gloves, tucking them into her coat pocket, and sits down.

The door from the kitchen opens. It’s Finn. He looks different – slimmer, healthier, his hair short. ‘Can I get you a drink, Rosamund?’ he says, and then smiles at each of us in turn. It’s good to see him.

‘Please,’ she says, removing her coat and hanging it up. ‘An orange juice will go down a treat.’

‘How were the roads?’ Finn asks, as he pours juice into a crystal-glass tumbler.

‘Horrendous. I skidded twice. Elise got quite panicked and feels a bit sick from the journey. But we got here in one piece, that’s the main thing.’ She glances at the window. ‘I can’t believe the rate it was falling earlier. Thank goodness it’s stopped for now.’ She smiles. ‘Elise wants to build a snowman in the morning. I’m sure there is still a small girl in there somewhere, even though she’s taller than me now.’ She’s babbling. Perhaps it’s us being here. Maybe we make her feel awkward – nervous. Well, she can’t feel any more uncomfortable than I do.

*

‘I’m going to head back to my cottage,’ Dad says as he finishes his last mouthful, and puts down his cutlery. Throughout the meal, the tension was tangible, and I realise now I’ve drunk too much wine.

‘I won’t be long,’ I say, picking up on a slight slur in my voice. ‘I’ll be up at the crack of dawn, I expect, so will need a few hours’ beauty sleep.’ Truth is though: I barely sleep at all anymore.

‘You’re an early riser too, are you?’ Finn says, smiling my way from where he’s propped against the bar, long legs splayed out in front of him. ‘I get up for a run around six – maybe you could join me.’

‘Not if you paid me a million pounds,’ I say with a laugh, and he laughs too.

Dad gets up, and puts on his coat.

‘Well it looks as though that’s my lift,’ Thomas says, smiling. And once Maddie has wrestled into her ski suit, and Thomas has put on his fur-collared jacket, Dad heaves him up, and carries him through the door, Maddie following behind.

I don’t move. Truth is, I’m not ready to leave quite yet. I hope to get more out of Rosamund before the evening is over. Ask her why she never contacted Mum before she died. Why she didn’t come to her funeral. Why she is here now.