‘Do you miss not living close to your family?’ she asked. He was grateful for the tactful sidestep in conversation, although he wasn’t altogether pleased with the new direction.

‘You’re not afraid of a direct question, are you?’ He gave her a sideways look. ‘I see I’m going to have to watch what I say.’

‘Sorry, wasn’t prying. Just interested,’ said Steph, and she looked down at her feet as they walked. ‘I was just asking because I’m always fascinated by other people’s relationships with their immediate family. I don’t get on with my mum that well. What I mean is, we get on OK, but there’s no big display of affection or any talk of feelings. I always feel we’re holding each other at arm’s length.’

He was touched by her openness and genuinely interested. ‘Do you live near to your mum?’

‘No. She lives up here in the Lakes, actually. Kendalton.’

‘Are you from here originally?’

‘Yes. I moved away when I was eighteen to go to uni.’

‘And you’ve never come back to live?’

‘No, not in Kendalton anyway. Nothing to come back for. As I said, me and my mum aren’t exactly close. I used to come back more often when my dad was alive.’

‘You were closer to your dad?’

‘Yeah. I miss him a lot.’ She gave a big sigh. ‘What about you and your dad? Were you close?’

‘Not especially,’ Harry found himself confessing. ‘And all this is off the record, right?’

‘Of course! Like I said last night, I have my own personal integrity and I’m not here to report on your relationship with your dad. You have to trust me or, if you can’t, then change the subject. We can talk about the scenery again, if you like – it’s a safe subject and at least you can’t sue me.’

Harry gave a laugh. ‘OK, I do trust you.’ He wasn’t sure if he should trust her, but he realised he actually did. Maybe it was her honesty about her own difficult relationship with her mother and the easy nature of their conversation. ‘Like you and your mother, my father and I didn’t have a great relationship. I didn’t fit into the Sinclair mould. Fortunately, I had an older brother who did and a younger brother who wanted to, and, largely, I could slip by without too much attention.’

‘So, what made it not great?’

‘I’m not some privileged silver-spoon kid who is just stamping his feet.’

‘I didn’t say you were.’

‘But you were thinking it.’

‘Make me think differently, if, hypothetically speaking, I was.’