Lara had learned to see past the oddity of his routine, having visited him almost every day for five years. A quietly charming woman now in her early thirties, she relieved the role from her mother – the original housekeeper – when she fell ill. On each encounter, without fail, Alec still asked after the woman’s health. Naturally, she had long since recovered from the common cold. Their family was of Italian origin. Dark hair, brown eyes, bronzed skin; all the colours that Alec was not.

It was nearly nine o’clock; the hour – or more accurately, the number – that Alec held above all others. The beginning and the end. Lara had already prepared him his evening meal and delivered him a single brandy. Provided that he abided by this tried-and-tested practice, then Alec was always occupied. Otherwise, he thought too much and his hands began to fidget. And that wasn’t good for the chair’s leather.

The window shutters had rolled down before nightfall, as programmed. There was a time when his home had to be locked down manually like a fortress besieged by the stars. He still recalled his father setting those wooden boards into each frame. No easy feat given their length and the man’s weakness for the drink. Thankfully, owing to new technologies, those days were no more. Mankind’s affection for comfort inspires all manner of invention. The technician who installed the system set it so that it adapted to the seasons, always activating at precisely the right time. Alec didn’t need to know how it worked. He was content to simply know that it did.

On Sunday, the clocks would fall back. This was perhaps an insignificant day for most, but not Alec. His days were short enough without trimming off another hour. The shutters would adjust accordingly.

His study provided adequate distraction to pass these long nights. The lion’s share of his time was occupied by the room’s library, aligned along the southern wall from the floor to the ceiling. New books populated its shelves each month. Good reads and old editions were kept, whilst others were removed.

Though its air of antiquity had been carefully guarded over the years, more contemporary means of entertainment now inhabited the room. Alec considered them an eyesore, similar in effect to a gaudy neon sign on an old Parisian street. Not that travel was ever an option for the man. At least the house cat never knew what it was missing.