We both looked up. I hadn’t noticed the change but she was right. The sky was a leaden grey and the clouds that were tumbling in from the east were black battleships. The birds had fallen silent.

‘Spot of rain,’ I said, extending a hand.

‘You walk here?’ asked Felicity.

‘I don’t have a car,’ I said.

‘Of course you don’t have a car,’ she said. ‘A bicycle, I meant.’

‘No. I just walked. You?’

‘I’m only up the road. White house at the top of the lane. Two minutes. You’ll never make it back to Winslow’s.’

‘It’s fine. I don’t mind the rain.’

She looked at me as if I was mad. ‘There’s going to be a storm. You get caught out in it, well, it’s not the rain you have to worry about. It’s the lightning.’

I dismissed her fears, screwing up my face as if to say that such a thing was a needless worry. Above, the clouds twisted upon themselves, like milk being poured into black tea. I heard raindrops begin to hit the leaves. Felt droplets of water fall as footsteps upon my skin. There was something in the air; a static and charge. The hairs on my arms began to rise like sails.

‘Come to my place,’ she said. ‘You can wait out the storm. I have a nice apple cake. The children are at school. I would be worried sick letting you walk.’

‘I’ll just pop in the church,’ I said, waving at the sturdy grey oblong with its flat roof, leaded windows and thick walls.

‘Is it open? It’s always locked. Fairfax is the warden and he lives two doors from me. You’re just as well popping to my place.’

I was torn. Part of me was enjoying this sudden moment of human contact. Felicity was a warm, kind and generous soul who wanted to keep me safe from the storm. What did it say about me if I refused? Yet the idea of a warm, comfortable family home filled me with dread. I would never have such a thing myself. I would never know such a life.

‘Here it comes,’ said Felicity, and she raised a hand above her head. She was still holding the flowers and seemed to realize it. ‘Here, give these to the grave you’ve been laying on. I’ll get more for Mam.’