A quick stop at her own house in Pooley Bridge enabled her to shower and freshen up, then she bought some flowers and a bottle of wine for her father and drove to the pretty town of Keswick, over which the mighty Skiddaw acted as sentinel. She could see its outline in the darkness. How simple to be a mountain, she thought. She parked in Ted’s driveway, which was tight, space in the medieval settlement being at a premium.

Johnny opened the front door and Kelly felt the tension in her body release. She smiled as he walked towards her. He looked tanned in the light spilling out of the doorway, his life on the fells showing. His jumper fell loose about his frame, but she knew that underneath, his body was hard. That wasn’t what she relied on, though: it was the hardness of his mettle that was important to her, a mixture of what he’d experienced of the world as well as what he knew was possible. Like her, he saw the bare face of human nature when he rescued a stranded climber on the mountainside, but he’d seen it too when he’d stared into the eyes of a refugee in Kosovo: he understood what she was dealing with; he got it.

She allowed him to hold her and he kissed her forehead. He smelled clean and masculine and she wondered, not for the first time, if she should do something else with her life. They could sail away, perhaps to Florida again, and spend the rest of their lives between beach and boat. But she knew that her reality was here, with Ted and Josie and shitbags who needed catching. She smiled at him and took his hand.

‘Josie thinks Amber is hilarious,’ he said. ‘She’s been telling us stories about what little kids come out with at school about their parents.’

‘Everyone relaxed?’

‘Yes. Are you OK?’

‘Maybe we’ll get to talk about it later. I’m really looking forward to switching off for a few hours.’

They kissed, then he led her inside. Ted was at the stove, wearing a pinafore that said Victory is in the Kitchen. Kelly had bought it for him in London when she’d worked down there for a week during the summer. Ted had been born after the Second World War but he wasn’t too young to remember rationing.

‘Kelly! Can you have some wine?’

‘Yes, go on, I’ve given myself the evening off.’ As the SIO, she’d left work for the night shift to do. They’d call her if they needed her. She could have a few glasses, with food.

‘Ah, good!’ He hugged her. ‘Any progress?’

She paused before she answered and watched him stir something that looked and smelled divine.

‘I know it’s perhaps not the time…’ she said.

‘But…’ he filled in for her. She smiled.