And then the weird behaviour continued when he failed to turn up for dinner, saying that he didn’t remember Annie inviting him. Surely that was either a daft excuse or an outright lie. But why had he felt the need to do that? It made no sense.

At any other time, Annie would have shrugged it off and put it down to his age. But because of what was happening her mind was all over the place. She couldn’t help wondering if her uncle had done something stupid or bad and was now seriously regretting it.

Traffic was light on the A683 as it meandered through an artwork of a landscape. Snow-covered hills reached towards a sky that was filled with low, bloated clouds.

Suddenly she found herself approaching the old stone bridge that crosses the River Rawthey. Just beyond this was a layby, and that was where Bill said he’d be waiting. Only, when Annie reached it, she couldn’t see him.

She pulled onto the layby and stopped the car. At this point the narrow river that hugged the road was out of sight at the bottom of an overgrown embankment.

Annie got out of the car and looked around, but Bill was nowhere to be seen so she called his name.

‘I’m down here,’ he shouted back.

She walked to the edge of the layby and looked down towards the frozen river. And there was her uncle, sitting on a rock a few yards to the right of his bright red Ford Escort. The vehicle was resting precariously on the embankment and would have slid down into the water if the front hadn’t been crushed up against a tree. It was immediately obvious to Annie what had happened. Bill had for some reason careered off the road and plunged down the embankment. But it looked as though the damage was restricted to the front bumper and bonnet.

Annie stumbled down the steep incline towards him and was immensely relieved when he stood and turned towards her. He looked to be in one piece, thankfully.

‘My God, are you all right?’ she said as she reached him.

He nodded. ‘I’m fine. Just a bit shaken. And ruddy freezing.’

‘So you’re not hurt?’

‘I was lucky,’ he said. ‘The tree saved me.’

His face was ghostly pale and he was trembling beneath his heavy coat.

‘Maybe I should take you straight to a hospital,’ Annie said. ‘Just to be sure.’

‘There’s no need for that, my dear. Just get me back to the village so I can arrange for the garage to come and drag the old girl out of here. And then I’ll have a stiff drink or two.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘But what the hell happened?’

He shrugged. ‘As I said on the phone, I did something stupid. When I realised I was going too fast I braked hard and lost control on the icy road. Ended up going over the edge and hitting the tree.’

‘I suppose it could have been much worse.’