The sky outside was blue, but there was a bracing wind whipping up across the sea and Evelyn stood for a moment to breathe it in. It had been a while since she had had the salty air in her nostrils and her lungs, and it felt good but also a little overwhelming to be out in so much space. Was that how agoraphobia began, she wondered? Would that have been her fate? Well, she wasn’t having any of it. Now that she was finally back outside, she felt neither panic nor dread. It merely reminded her of how amazing the place where she lived was, and made her feel slightly ashamed that she had forgotten. In fact, standing outside her house looking out across the wide ocean to the horizon beyond, it felt good to be alive, which was something she hadn’t managed to feel for a long time.

Pip seemed in no hurry to get going and was waiting patiently at her side until she was ready to move on. Evelyn nodded at her. It seemed there was more at stake here than just a walk, but she couldn’t quite grasp what it was. Tiny green shoots of something new, maybe, and not just for her. She hoped Pip was feeling this embryonic connection between the pair of them as well.

They crossed the road so they could wander along the wide promenade that ran alongside the beach.

‘Shall we walk along to the pier?’ asked Pip. ‘Is that too far?’

Evelyn was horrified that anyone should have to ask her if she could manage the couple of hundred yards from her front door to the pier but then, when she thought about it, it wasn’t such a ridiculous question. She had no idea how far her legs would carry her any more, it being so long since she had last put them to the test. That said, she was feeling confident.

‘I think that’ll be fine,’ she said to Pip with a reassuring smile. ‘And when we get there, we can have a restorative cup of tea and a sticky bun before we set out on the return journey.’

‘Do you need anything else?’ Pip asked tentatively. ‘Would you like to take my arm?’

Bless her for offering, thought Evelyn. From what she knew of Pip so far, she didn’t think arm-linking with old ladies was something that came naturally to her.