He frowned ruefully. ‘Instead of a walk we’ve had a snowman competition, which lasted about ten minutes before turning into a snowball fight. I pleaded an injury and ducked out early.’

He bent his head to show me an angry red mark on the side of his neck.

‘Ouch. That looks nasty.’

‘Elana had a pebble inside one of her snowballs. I’m sure it was an accident.’

I couldn’t help smiling. ‘Ha. I wouldn’t be at all sure about that. Not if there was some sort of competition involved.’

He wrinkled his nose. ‘Losers had to finish clearing the drive. I think I prefer being hit in the neck with a rock.’

Henry stood just inside the doorway, his whole body hunched to avoid banging into the eaves. He’d changed into a cream Aran sweater, which contrasted with his chestnut hair.

‘When did you start wearing jeans?’ I asked, getting up to sit on the bed and indicating that he could take the small chair.

‘What?’ He glanced down at his legs, as if only noticing for the first time. ‘I got changed because my trousers were soaking.’

‘No.’ I took a sip of tea, surprised that he’d remembered to add a quarter of a teaspoon of sugar. ‘When did you first ever wear a pair of jeans?’

The whole time I’d known Henry, he’d worn school trousers (often on the weekends) or cotton trousers with a sharp crease down the front. Once, on holiday, he’d worn knee-length shorts, though his socks had been pulled so high up his shins it hadn’t been that much of a difference.

I watched with interest as the tips of his ears turned pink again. Henry had always seemed so self-assured, as if he’d made the logical, rational choice and therefore no one else’s opinion was relevant. It was so intriguing to see him ruffled.

‘I had a girlfriend who liked fashion. She bought me them.’

‘What?’ I nearly choked on my tea.

‘It’s that much of a shock that I’ve had girlfriends?’ he asked, the tips of his mouth curling up.

‘Girlfriends? Yes! Mum never told me there were women fighting over you, revamping your wardrobe.’

‘Do you think that could be because she never knew about them, because I was sensible enough not to tell my mum?’

‘Oh, now secret girlfriends are even better!’ How had I never realised before that teasing Henry was so much fun? ‘Were they physicists? Did they complete maths puzzles with you? Ooh – did you go on dates and spend the whole time correcting grammar?’

‘Of course. Once we’d read each other our favourite quotes from the latest journal of Astroparticle Physics.’

‘I love this new information about you.’

‘Just because I’m not some leather-jacketed, bad-boy musician, it doesn’t mean that no other women want to go out with me.’