It seemed to me she was being . . . protective, you know?

Like he was vulnerable as opposed to dangerous.

We all stared, obviously, didn’t even pretend not to and why would we? Shaun didn’t look at anything except the plate in front of him. He didn’t say a dicky bird, not to Mia even, and once he’d finished she escorted him out; her hand hovering a few inches away from his back, like she was afraid to touch him.

After he’d gone – back to his room, I guessed – a few people hung around and drifted across to congregate at the same table. They slurped tea or pushed apple crumble around their dishes, many of them only too keen to share their freshly revised opinions of the situation.

‘He looks bad,’ Donna said.

Ilias grinned at her. ‘You think you look so fantastic?’

‘I reckon it’s some kind of post-trauma thing.’ Bob looked at me. ‘Isn’t that what you had?’

I ignored Lauren’s bark of laughter and stared at him.

‘It’s what we’ve all had.’ Lucy laid a hand on my arm. ‘We’ve all been through something, to one degree or other. There’s trauma and there’s trauma, that’s all.’

‘Has he spoken at all?’ Graham asked. ‘Since the other night, I mean.’

Heads were shaken. Ilias let out a loud burp then shook his.

‘That’s fairly serious, then.’

‘It wasn’t like he said much before,’ Donna said. ‘I mean, he was always quiet.’

‘If he’s actually . . . silent, though.’ Graham let out a whistle. ‘Just saying, that’s not nothing, is it?’

‘Yeah, it’s bollocks,’ Lauren said.

Graham turned to look at her and pointed. ‘You were the one shouting at him the other night.’

Bob nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yeah, you shouted.’

‘Shouting because he was being too loud.’ Graham was suddenly getting as worked up as I’d ever seen him. ‘Because you couldn’t hear your precious programme.’

Lauren jabbed a spoon hard towards Graham’s face and smirked when he recoiled like it was something a bit sharper. ‘Shouldn’t you be standing by the meds hatch already like a tit in a trance?’ She looked at the watch she wasn’t wearing. ‘Best hurry up, mate, it’ll be open in twenty minutes.’ She watched as Graham scuttled from the room, panic-stricken, then went back to her pudding and quickly shovelled a spoonful into her mouth. ‘Shaun’s putting it on if you ask me. Poor baby’s looking for attention.’

I tried not to sound too sarcastic. ‘You think?’

‘Course he is.’

‘It’s possible,’ Ilias said. ‘Maybe he’s playing a game or something.’