‘Yeah. Well, sort of.’ I push hair out of my face, grab my denim jacket and pull Skywalker to the door. ‘He needs to get outside, though. For his early-morning run-around. And toilet.’

‘Of course,’ says Diane. ‘Listen, I’ve put some breakfast out for you downstairs. Do you like eggs?’

‘Um … I’m vegan. Remember?’

‘Right. Sorry. Okay. Wowsers. Can you give me some vegan breakfast ideas? What’s left without eggs and toast with butter?’

‘Mushrooms. And cereal with almond milk or oat milk.’

‘I’ll see what I can rustle up.’

‘Thanks. Is Michael awake yet?’

‘Not yet. He had a bit of a late one last night. He’s feeling it today. Come on. Let’s go downstairs and you can let your dog out for a run-around.’

Skywalker and I take a long time walking around Michael’s woodlands. The way I’m doing things, we explore methodically, kind of breaking the land up into chunks.

Skywalker, of course, wants to hare around in all directions.

‘Come on, dogface.’ I tug at his collar. ‘We don’t have forever. The longer we stay here, the closer Mum is to having a nervous breakdown.’

After an hour, Skywalker is done exploring the woods, so we head back for breakfast. On the path back to the house, Skywalker finds some old shotgun shells and picks up the gunpowder scent. I follow him to a hunting shed full of shotguns.

‘Well, Mum was right about one thing,’ I tell Skywalker, as he bounds inside the shed and sits perkily by the rack of hunting rifles. ‘He does keep guns here. That’s the countryside way.’

Skywalker is so proud of himself for finding the stash.

‘Good boy.’

I throw him another biscuit for his sniffing talents. Then I pop chewing gum into my mouth and examine the rifles, looking down the barrels, testing them out.

‘Wow.’ I stand back, looking over the gleaming metal. ‘Some of these are pretty mega. I mean, deer guns. You could kill someone with one of those.’

‘Yeah, you could.’ Michael’s growly early-morning voice makes me jump. He stands in the cabin doorway, wearing green wellies, black jeans, a grey hoodie and a tweedy flat cap.

‘Um … hi.’ I try for a smile. ‘Just checking out your rifle collection.’

‘Careful with those now, little one,’ says Michael. ‘They’re dangerous things. You know better than to play around with them, don’t you?’

‘I know,’ I say, eyes gliding over the rack.

‘Let’s come away from these things, now. They’re not toys. It’s good to see you up and awake.’ Michael gives me a clap on the shoulder. ‘Did your doggy like the woods? Diane told me you were walking him.’

‘Oh, yeah. He loved it.’

‘I thought you’d got lost out here. I came to find you.’

‘The walk took longer than I thought it would,’ I say. ‘These woodlands are huge.’