As he walked back to the main house, he replayed the morning in his mind. Harry wasn’t quite sure what he was getting himself into. Part of him felt he should steer clear of Steph – after all, she was a reporter and she’d asked a few questions about Elizabeth, which should be ringing alarm bells, but he was aware he was making a point of ignoring them. He was sure Steph wouldn’t find anything out and, besides, he really liked her. His gut feeling was she was genuine and that was important to him. As he walked, he realised it was something that had sadly been missing in his marriage for a long time.

When he arrived at the house, he went into the sitting room, where his mother was resting in a chair by the fireplace. Harry crept in and took the rug from the back of the other chair and placed it carefully over her knees.

Pru opened an eye. ‘I’m not that old. You don’t have to treat me like you’ve come to visit me in a retirement home.’ She smiled at him.

‘I thought you were asleep,’ said Harry, assessing her appearance. It wasn’t like his mother to rest during the day. He wondered if it was a new symptom of her illness. She went to get up. ‘Stay there, Mum. Can I get you anything? A cup of tea?’

‘That would be nice.’ She looked him up and down. ‘Nice walk, was it? You know, your risk assessment?’

‘Yeah. All good.’ He avoided eye contact with her. He could tell when his mother was fishing. She hated not knowing what was going on with every aspect of Conmere, including the private lives of her sons.

‘Dominic was looking for you a little while ago.’

‘What did he want?’

‘I don’t know. Just said to tell you he was looking for you.’

‘I’ll do your tea and then I’ll go and find him.’

Harry returned to Pru a few minutes later with a cup of tea and a couple of biscuits. He dropped a kiss on his mother’s head and went off to Dominic’s office across the hall. The door was closed and he knocked, opening it a fraction to peer in. Dominic was on the phone, but he waved Harry in and pointed to the chair as he wound up his call.

‘Mum said you were looking for me.’

Dominic leaned back into his deep padded chair, hooking one ankle over the other knee. ‘Where have you been this morning?’

‘You’re as bad as Mum, wanting to keep tabs on me,’ said Harry. ‘I just went for a walk.’

Dominic looked speculatively at him. ‘A walk?’

‘Yes. A walk. Anyway, what did you want?’

‘You just went on a random walk? On your own?’