Matilda leant forward, her hair brushing his face. ‘Ah. Claud’s fancy dress.’ She took a hanger off the rail and slipped a caftan over her shoulders. ‘Look.’ As she turned her back he saw the back of the garment was painted with a skeleton. ‘He had castanets and clicked them.’ She began to dance, making the skeleton move eerily. Hugh drew back in vague distaste. ‘He scared the girls.’

‘Why should he want to do that?’

‘It was Louise, she had –’ Matilda pulled the caftan round her.

‘She had – what? What had she done?’

‘I always think of it as the Postman’s Ball. Louise was – poor Louise was going with the postman. She had planned to have him for herself. Yes, I think she had. I know she had. It was to be the postman. He wasn’t the postman then. They were all at school together. It’s a long time ago. I expect he’s forgotten – I mean Claud – the postman wouldn’t forget, one doesn’t, does one?’ She paused, looking at Hugh, pulling the caftan over her shoulders, putting it back on its hanger. She repeated, as she hung the caftan on the rail, ‘One doesn’t forget, does one?’

‘Forget what?’ Hugh looking down at her, thought that her skin was good for her age, smooth, hardly lined.

‘One’s first love. One never forgets one’s first love.’

‘I suppose not.’

‘Claud is homosexual. The postman wasn’t even pretty. I don’t think he knew until Louise started making jokes, sly digs.’

‘Not nice of her.’

‘None of her business, was it?’ Matilda shook her head. ‘Well, behind that fancy dress there’s miles of cupboard. All the garden cushions are in there for the winter. It’s very clean, I’ve just swept it out. I’ve kept Claud’s dress, some of Louise’s and Anabel’s things too. I borrow them occasionally.’

‘Do they wear them when they visit you?’

‘They don’t visit. I have kept them in case they’d like them when I’m dead. Some of those clothes of Anabel’s are dateless and Louise always buys wonderful material, she could use it to cover cushions, couldn’t she?’

‘Yes.’

‘The boy’s clothes are in your room, mixed up with Tom’s. I thought –’

‘What?’

‘I thought I wouldn’t tidy Tom away quite as much as myself. It’s me they don’t come and see.’

Hugh said nothing. Matilda closed the cupboard.

‘If really pushed you can go up that ladder to the attic. I even cleaned that.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Have some more coffee before I go to the village.’

‘Thanks.’ Hugh followed her downstairs, noting that she walked like a dancer, straight backed.

‘Are you a dancer?’

‘No. I used to do yoga at one time.’

‘So did my mother. She stood on her head and sat in the lotus position, all that.’