There were tears in Cara’s eyes, too, as she listened. Briefly she touched Fliss’s hand in sympathy, and then Sam appeared and said that he and Cara should be getting back to Oscar.

Now, as she gazes out across the moor, Fliss longs to share the glory of it all with her.

‘I hope Cara will come and stay,’ she says to Hal. ‘It would be so good to show her Dartmoor.’

‘Well, even if she doesn’t,’ Hal says, ‘I’m sure Sam will bring her up here at some point. He loves it all, too. But I agree. It would be fun if she were to decide to spend some time with us.’ He hesitates. ‘I felt that the boy was looking a tad less introspective, did you? More like his old self. He positively sparkled at lunch.’

Fliss nods, smiling. ‘I think he’s coming to it. To telling us what’s troubling him. Mole was like that, wasn’t he? Always anxious that he shouldn’t worry you with some confidence. As if it were some kind of weakness not to be able to cope.’

Hal nods. ‘Dear old boy,’ he says rather sadly. ‘And Sam looks just like him. It takes me aback all standing sometimes.’

He pulls into the car park opposite the reservoir, switches off the engine and looks in the rear-view mirror. Honey is sitting up, staring out rather anxiously at the great expanse of open moorland, and at the several ponies which loiter nearby. Hal turns round and reaches for her lead.

‘I’m not sure we’ll need this – she won’t leave my side as a rule – but I don’t want to take any chances. The ponies might suddenly kick up their heels and dash off and that might spook her. I’d hate to have to chase her halfway over Dartmoor.’

Fliss opens her door and gets out. The air is clear and fresh and she breathes deeply. There is a sense of infinity here: a brief glimpse of the eternal. Hal is out of the car, releasing Honey, clipping on her lead.

‘Rule one,’ he is telling her. ‘We do not chase persons who have four legs. That’ll do to begin with.’

Fliss goes to join them. She slips her hand in Hal’s and they set off together towards Bench Tor.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Cara puts into a folder all the sheets of paper containing house details that Sam has printed off for her, gives Oscar a pat and takes the folder down to her bedroom. All the while she is listening for the sound of the front door opening and Judith’s return from Oxford. Sam has already driven away to The Keep and now Cara is alone again.