‘Then how can you answer me?’ Harri asked.

‘Stop playing games, Ben,’ Elliot said.

‘Does your phone work in here?’ Harri asked, checking her device. She didn’t have any signal.

Elliot looked at his and shook his head.

‘I know this is difficult for you both, but it’s better this way,’ Ben said on screen.

‘Better for who?’ Harri asked, her temper rising.

‘For Elliot,’ Ben replied. ‘And for you, Harriet. If you’ll indulge me, I want to tell my story. When I’m finished, you’ll understand everything.’

Chapter 43

‘I was thirty-two when I came home, eleven years older than you are now, Elliot. I came back for the job at Keele. Dr Abiola had heard about the particle work I’d been doing in Sydney, and had interviewed me by phone, and then I did a panel by video conference.

‘They must have liked what they heard, because they offered me a research position and lectureship with a view to tenure if everything went well.

‘It was raining the first time I arrived at the university. I turned up in the wrong place, the main administration block, near that weird modern church and the library that looks like it belongs in small-town America.

‘I didn’t realize Dr Abiola and her team were based in the science park. I got soaked running back to the little Polo I used to drive then, and arrived late for my first day, looking like a drowned cat.

‘Dr Abiola was very gracious. She’s always been far too polite to confront people directly. She showed me to her office and I used her private bathroom to dry off. Afterwards, she took me on a tour of the faculty, and I met your mother. She was standing at a bench in her lab. She was wearing a tinted visor and was busy fixing a circuit board.

‘I thought she was the most beautiful person I’d ever seen, and was so moved by the moment I couldn’t speak. I think Dr Abiola inferred I was infatuated with Beth, but she was wrong. There’s no way she could understand the profound connection I felt for your mother, nor why it mattered so much to me.

‘ “Beth Jennings, I’d like you to meet Ben Elmys,” Dr Abiola said. “Dr Elmys has joined us from Sydney.”

‘Beth shook my hand and I felt charged by her touch.

‘ “When I heard you were coming, I took a look at some of your work,” she revealed. “Your theories on block determinism are fascinating. The idea our fates are set seems quite bleak, don’t you think?”

‘ “Dr Elmys isn’t here for his philosophy,” Dr Abiola said. “We’re interested in his particle work.”

‘I must have been looking at your mother like a love-struck suitor, because she smiled at me uncomfortably and said, “Are you OK, Dr Elmys?”

‘I snapped out of my daydream and nodded sheepishly.

‘ “Please call me Ben,” I replied. “I’m fine, thanks. You’re too kind. What are you working on?”