Sometimes my mother is very close to my heart. We both laugh together.

‘Yes, of course bring someone. I have enough food. Is it someone I know?’

‘No. It’s a man from the North – he’s staying here for a few days. Laurence McGrane. He has a dog.’

‘Lovely, dear. Seven-thirty. And he can bring his dog if it behaves.’

I put down the telephone.

He is standing watching me, his bag still in his hand.

‘That was my mother. We’re going to have supper with her tonight. I hope you don’t mind. She likes to meet new people. Saves me cooking you a meal.’ I give a little laugh. ‘Don’t get me wrong, please. Don’t misinterpret me. Bring your things upstairs and then come down and make us a cup of tea. I’m exhausted. Too many things are happening to me today.’

Without a word he turns and plods up the short flight of stairs. I bet he’s regretting the decision he’s made. I think I am too. Pansy seems happy enough though.

Two days.

I will stay here two days.

No more.

It was kind of her to ask me and I knew the moment I went back into that dismal hotel that I was going to accept the invitation.

Laurence stared out of the window at the gardens and the hedges just becoming green and the trees and the distant bay. At home there was nothing but the ocean. You could clamber down those twenty steps, cut into the rock by someone a long time ago, and walk straight down onto the sand. No neat hedges, no zigzag pattern of roofs glistening with the day’s rain.

‘This is such glory. Don’t you think, Lar, that it’s terribly dangerous to be so happy?’

His feet were freezing. She never seemed to feel how cold the sea really was. Now the tide was creeping in, curling and gently buffeting at their feet and ankles. Sucking the gritty sand from under them and then tossing it back as the waves moved in again.

‘I don’t give it a thought,’ he said. ‘I just take what is given to me. Day by day. What else would you expect me to do?’

‘Fear,’ she said. ‘I fear.’

He was surprised. He had never suspected that she might have any dark thoughts. At moments like this he was always surprised at how little he knew of her. She kept secrets so well, he thought. He stared out across the sea, disturbed by the pain in her voice.

She took his arm and hugged it. ‘One of the things I love about you is that you don’t have any fear. I love that. I get strength from that.’

Damn, he thought, damn, damn.

He was still holding the bag in his hand. He let it fall with a thud to the floor. He wondered if she would let him use her washing machine; or was that perhaps taking advantage of her hospitality?

He went down the stairs and into the kitchen, where Pansy was lying quite at home beside the Aga. Her tail thumped gently as he came into the room. The lid of the kettle was clicking on the hot ring.