‘I know that too,’ she said. ‘Darling, faithful Adam . . . who I’ve relied on and taken for granted for years. This will be terrible for him too. I will tell him, of course – but I don’t want anyone else to know just yet. I couldn’t cope with other people’s reactions and emotions at the moment – you’ve no idea how difficult that is. It’d just be too much. I’ve got to get sorted in my own head first. Promise me you won’t tell anyone.’

‘What can I do?’ he asked. ‘Would you like me to ring Adam now to see if he could come back and be with you?’

‘We wouldn’t get him. He won’t have his mobile switched on and I don’t want to leave a message tonight. Talk to me, Christopher,’ she said. ‘Just talk to me about something, anything . . . anything except cancer.’

So he told her about childhood holidays, about long-ago, gap year travels and later university escapades, and she listened and laughed and asked questions until suddenly he realised she’d fallen asleep, in the way a small child can fall asleep, literally between one word and the next. He found a coat hanging in the hall and covered her with it. She looked absurdly young and desperately vulnerable and his heart turned over with sadness as he looked at her . . . but not, he thought, with love. Whatever the mysterious alchemy is that ignites a fuse between a particular man and woman, it had not sparked that special fire between him and Louisa – or not as far as he was concerned. He wondered what he ought to do. Clearly she could not be left to wake – perhaps hours later – only to find herself alone when she would have to face again, after temporary oblivion, the frightening reality of what was happening to her.

He stacked the plates and put them in the dishwasher, making as little clatter as he could, but she slept on, so he fetched the paper intending to read it, but found he could neither concentrate nor see properly in the dimmed lighting. As he didn’t want to put the overhead light on for fear of waking her, he sat in the semi-darkness and pondered about the future, for himself, for Marnie, and for gallant, wayward Louisa, sleeping beside him.