She decided to focus firstly on the entertainment centre in the family living room where they kept all of their CDs, tapes and other various assorted formats for playing music (Penny had bought her music-mad father an iPod years ago but she didn’t think he had ever used it). But no joy there: Ned had lots of CDs certainly, mostly all sixties and seventies music, but definitely no vinyl.

If what she had been reading was to be believed, then the collection would be considerable, several boxes of vinyls maybe, so they would have to be stored somewhere that could afford that kind of space. Remembering that Rob had cleaned out the attic and stored everything in the ballroom, she went in there and started lifting the lids to various old wooden and cardboard storage chests – looking for anything that might contain records. But after looking through several boxes, mostly containing old junk from the hotel down through the years, once again she came up short.

She shrugged, guessing she would just have to ask her father about them. Perhaps the collection was so valuable, to him at least, that he kept them under his bed, or knowing Ned and his beloved Beatles, Penny thought, sighing, quite possibly under his pillow.

Rob had turned up halfway through the week. ‘I’m going to finish that roof,’ he said. ‘It’ll take thousands off any sale price, the way it is now.’

And over the following days he worked with that same intensity as always, while his dogs scampered and teased the cats below. Sometimes in the evenings that woman she had seen him with in the bar picked him up. Penny didn’t ask him about her but she knew that Rob would tell her if he wanted to.

How confusing everything had become lately.

Colin the English Invader interrupted Penny’s thoughts as she cleared out the cupboards in the kitchen. ‘Quite a marvellous day for a picnic, don’t you think?’

‘Well yes, go ahead then.’

‘I was rather hoping you’d come along.’

Penny sighed. Lately he was forever asking her to go here, there and everywhere with him. It was a strange situation because while he was supposed to be a guest, this was far from a normal hotel situation. And the truth was, she had sort of stopped thinking of Colin as an invader, and started to believe he was actually a godsend.

He was so easy to talk to and very relaxing to be around. With him there were no expectations, no awkward emotional stuff to tiptoe around. Penny didn’t know how he was getting on with his novel because he seemed to spend an awful lot of time just hanging around the hotel and the gardens, staring into the distance. Still, she supposed that was just what novelists did.

‘But I’ve got so much to do . . .’