“A hundred years ago this space would have been full of coal. It would have been delivered by horse and cart and tipped through a hole at the end of the front path.” He looked around. “Liam and I talked about making something of it. Liam thought it could be some kind of studio space. Now it’ll be a project for the new owners, whoever they are.” He looked at Jude. “You’re not contradicting me. You’re not saying, oh, but surely Danny will be able to keep the house.”

“It’s not up to me. There’s probably some way of keeping the house, if she really wants to.” Vin looked at her with a fixed expression that made her feel self-conscious. “What?” she said.

He smiled.

“You’re a woman of mystery,” he said. “You’re an object of fascination.”

Jude took a gulp of wine and it made her cough.

“I’m really, really not.”

“People keep saying to me: who is that woman? What does she want? And I don’t know what to say to them.”

“You sound like the detective.”

Now he looked puzzled.

“Why? Why do I sound like the detective?”

“Because she asks me questions like that, why I’m involved in all of this.”

“And what do you say?”

“I say that I’m not involved.”

Vin laughed but not unkindly. “For someone who’s not involved, you certainly are here a lot.”

“I didn’t even mean to be here for this. Erika asked me to help bring the flowers back from the funeral and then I keep being about to leave when . . .” Jude made a vague gesture with her free hand.

“People do things like luring you down to the cellar.”

“Yes, things like that.”

“You don’t have to apologize for being here. I suppose I’m just curious what you make of us all.”

“That’s a big question.”

“It’s the day of our friend’s funeral,” said Vin. “It’s a day for big questions.”

“Is that why you’ve brought me down here?”

“It’s better to be in semi-darkness for conversations like this.”

Jude hesitated. She thought about saying something bland and meaningless, and then going back upstairs, into the light and music and away, but a feeling of impromptu recklessness rose up in her. So she answered him sincerely.

“When I came to the house for the first time, it felt like something I’d never really experienced. All of you living together, being so creative. I’ve lived with groups of people but it’s never been quite like this. The way you make things and do paintings and stuff together. It felt—well, it felt marvelous. Or like a marvel.”

Vin smiled again. He had white, even teeth. “You said, when you came ‘for the first time.’ Is that what you still think?”