When I walk into the room, I see my partially dry painting must have been top-heavy because it has folded over upon itself. As I scrabble to gently open the fold, it appears to be stuck together. A gentle tug confirms that it’s too late to save it, and for some silly reason I feel tearful.

Nico isn’t at breakfast and I’m not sure what to do. I can hardly go to his room to check on him, so instead I go in search of Ceana.

‘Have you seen Nico, this morning?’ I ask, breezily.

‘Yes. Briefly. If there’s anything you need, it will have to wait, I’m afraid. He’s dropping the van off at the garage as the new exhaust has arrived. He’s getting a lift back, but he’ll be about an hour. I’m heading out to set-up his class this morning.’

‘Oh, no problem, then. It’s not urgent.’

I can’t tell from her expression if she knows what state he was in last night, but I’d guess not. I don’t know whether I should mention it, but I don’t feel it’s my place to do so, even though something tells me that Ceana looks out for Nico. Not because he’s in charge, but because she knows him rather well.

‘You had your first lesson with him yesterday, how did it go?’ she asks.

I raise the corners of my mouth, a satisfied smile beginning to creep over my face, unbidden. ‘Surprising,’ I say before I turn and walk away.

This morning I have very mixed feelings. Having a longing to create is one thing, but then suddenly being able to tap into that is a rather scary thing. I’d accepted that I’d have to wait a long time to be able to indulge myself in my little daydream. The one where I imagined myself in a field of flowers, sitting in front of an easel. And it isn’t just a lottery win that has made this happen. The irony is that this is only happening because of Aiden. Yesterday’s session unleashed the desire I’ve had to push away for so long and now… I’m nervous. What if I don’t have any real talent?

‘You’re deep in thought,’ Patricia falls in line with me as I head down towards the gardening shed.

‘Oh, hi, Patricia. How did you sleep?’

‘Well, thank you. The best I have in a long while. Have you seen Kellie? She’s in good spirits this morning too. I think that little session with Taylor went well last night.’

‘Oh, I’m so glad. And relieved. It’s funny, Ceana did say that on a retreat like this, people tend to be drawn together for many different reasons. A love of music is a wonderful reason for a connection and hopefully they’ll share it with us all at some point.’