‘Did you get her pregnant and then run off?’ she asked, and Ben knew they weren’t moving until she had his answer.

‘No, of course not. Why would you think that? I see Aoife every chance I get. It was just…’ choose your words ‘…a surprise. That’s all.’

‘A fucking surprise,’ Chloe snapped before walking away. ‘Honestly, you men are the worst.’

Ben had phoned his parents the night before. One day, he promised himself, he would justify their faith in him. This project of Sparling’s was a step in the right direction and his dad – always with his glass half full – believed it was the beginning of something wonderful; chapter one in a new book of Ben’s life after the old one lost its plot entirely. They had covered his tuition fees and supported him all the way. He wished that he could have told them more. But his mum would have been in touch with the whole family, the neighbours, and then denied having ever done so. Every shitty thing he did was celebrated like a medical breakthrough. Hopefully, when he saw them again, he would have some good news to trade for all they had done for him. Ben knew that was all they wanted.

‘Wonderful,’ Sparling had said when they’d both handed back their agreements, fixing his glasses to his nose as he checked for their signatures. ‘Now we can get down to business.’

‘This better be good,’ Chloe whispered, leaning into Ben’s ear, the warmth of her breath caressing his neck like silk.

Sparling examined the non-disclosure agreements one last time before setting them down. He glanced cautiously around the hall, his eyes resting for a second on both doors at the back, and only then did he speak.

‘This ordnance survey map is from the 1830s,’ he said, drawing their attention to the projection behind him. ‘It’s the first of its kind to record a village by the name of Tír Mallacht. Trust me, you haven’t heard of it. You can see here a cluster of cottages. Each one small, in most cases no more than a single room. Their layout and proximity are nothing unusual. To the east you can mark the location of a church and graveyard – the only features worthy of note from the cartographer’s point of view at least. Mapmakers back then had few tools at their disposal, so we shall forgive the possibility of any shortcomings on their part. As you both know, such cloistered communities were commonplace in the nineteenth century. There is nothing in this map bordering on oddity or anomaly.’