‘Take him out and about. You live in one of the most exciting capitals in the world,’ she adds. That explains the skirt, I think. ‘Did he used to enjoy London?’

‘Yes, he did,’ I say. ‘He was supposed to design some of it. He was an architect, before he went blind.’

‘That’s a real shame. And did you enjoy London?’

Enjoy was a bit of a stretch; it’s not like it’s chocolate cake. ‘I suppose so,’ I respond. No. Not really.

‘Find out where he’d like to go and do some day trips together. Force yourself to go out, be your father’s eyes.’

‘Day trips?’ My father is blind and I am probably the grumpiest woman in London. I can’t really see us going on day trips.

‘Yes, day trips. And talk to each other.’ She smiles at me again, in a way I feel she means to wrap this up. Well, I’m ready. I’m in the doorway. ‘I wish you all the best, Prue.’

‘Thank you,’ I mumble.

‘Goodbye, Prudence.’

I take one last look at her beautiful shoes.

‘OK, thank you, Verity. Thank you very much. Goodbye.’

CHAPTER 6

Three sets of stairs and an infuriatingly hard-to-open door later and I have never been so relieved to breathe the air of a London street into my lungs, in all its exhaust-fumed glory. I flee up it (unwise to run in flip-flops, but needs must), a very guilty fugitive, the new jacket flopping over one arm like a limp fish. That was horrendous. Verity was kind, but I have been exposed as a charlatan of the highest order. And ‘day trips’! Dad won’t want to go on any day trips! He barely talks to me; he’s hardly going to want to go strolling round London, bumping into things and making polite conversation with me about the weather while I ping poisonous looks at all the people staring at us …

The jacket falls off my arm and on to the pavement and I retrieve it and put it in my bag. I really don’t think my father wants me to become his eyes. I don’t think he would appreciate my surly, moody vision of the world. And I’m not sure I can take on the responsibility of guiding him around, either. Not on proper outings. We’re safer in The Palladian, surely? I don’t think it would do either of us any good to be let loose on the streets of London, an unwieldy double act. None of my forays into the world have ever been successful, after all.

I skitter up the road, rushing towards home. Thank you for your advice, Verity, I think, but there can be no day trips. I didn’t see anything, remember? So absolutely nothing needs to change.

‘This is new, you going out all the time.’