‘Not in so many words . . . but I know too much after living under the shadow of this thing for ten years. He said “not good news this time, I’m afraid” and that he’d like to see me again tomorrow and discuss what he calls “any possible options”. I went for a routine check-up last week and they weren’t happy – shadows on the X-ray, they said, might have to check the bloods again, just to be safe, probably nothing to worry about . . . all that guff . . . and so they did more blood tests and a full scan. Now he’s rung me with the results.’

‘Would you like a drink? Can I get you anything?’

She gave a watery smile. ‘I’d love a cup of tea – just good strong builder’s variety. It might help pull me together. I’m so sorry to do this to you, Christopher.’

‘For God’s sake! I’m glad to be here with you.’

He made two mugs of tea and they went and sat on the sofa together and he listened while she told him how the cancer had returned three years ago after a long remission; it hadn’t been directly related to the original Hodgkinson’s, though they’d always warned her that that put her at greater risk of getting other types of cancer. This time it had been breast cancer. She’d had a partial mastectomy, a reconstruction and radiotherapy and thought she’d beaten it again. All the signs had been good. ‘There have been one or two niggles just lately – not symptoms exactly, nothing I could pin down, but I told myself I was fine. Now I suddenly feel so very tired of being brave,’ she said wearily.

He remembered Marnie finding the dead owl and telling him about Louisa’s dream, and it made him go cold.

‘Do your parents know?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘Not yet. It’s only happened in the last week. I’ll have to tell them now, of course, but they’ve been through so much with me that I didn’t want to worry them unless I needed to.’

‘Don’t shut them out,’ he said. ‘Their help will be in trying to help you.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I’m well aware of that, but it doesn’t make it any easier. I’ll ring them in the morning.’

‘What about Adam?’ he asked tentatively. ‘He obviously still loves you. He’ll want to support you over this.’