Harry’s phone rang out, coming to her rescue. He pulled an apologetic face. ‘Sorry, I’d better answer it, just in case it’s my mum. She’s not been feeling too well,’ explained Harry, extracting himself and taking his phone from his pocket. He walked out onto the front porch, closing the door behind him.

Steph wandered over to the bank of photo frames adorning the wall to the left of the chimney breast.

The photographs were family shots which, judging by the look of them, had been taken at various times over the years. One of the older photographs caught Steph’s interest. It was of Pru standing at the edge of a lake with three young boys, who Steph assumed were Harry and his brothers. They were all wearing wetsuits.

Harry came back into the room. ‘Just work stuff,’ he said, dropping the phone onto the sofa. He came to stand beside her. ‘Rogues’ gallery. This was my mother’s touch. She replaced all the photos of me and Elizabeth that used to be here.’

‘Wow. That was a deep clean of family history. Although, to be fair, I didn’t keep my wedding photos up after my divorce.’ Steph winced at her lack of tact. She went to apologise but Harry spoke first.

‘My mum meant well. At the time I was grateful not having to look at all those happy memories that had turned so sour.’ He gave a small sigh. ‘I really should look at sorting the photos out myself, or maybe just taking the whole lot down.’

‘Was this taken here?’ asked Steph, pointing at the photograph of Pru and the boys.

‘Yes, up by the lake. We used to swim up there a lot when we were younger.’

‘Your mum as well?’

‘Yep. She used to love wild-water swimming. She used to go up to the lake every day and swim for about half an hour. It was her love of water sports that kickstarted the more recent changes. My father had it running as a country retreat, where men could fish and women could enjoy the walks or sitting by the lake. He was rather traditional sometimes, whereas my mother was always looking for ways to improve it and bring in a wider demographic of guests. She had the real vision.’

Steph noticed the affection with which Harry spoke about his mother. ‘What about your dad? Was he into the water-sports thing?’

‘God, no. He only had a financial interest in it,’ Harry said drily. ‘It was Mum’s passion for the outdoor life that drove it forward. At one point, Dad wanted to sell up – this was when we were kids – but Mum wouldn’t hear of it and stood her ground. He even threatened to leave her, but she stubbornly refused to go along with the sale.’

‘And your dad gave in?’