Reviews and profiles usually dragged up all that business with Sebby and Mother and Father. They always wanted to know about that. How did it feel, Elle? You must have been devastated. Did you feel you could only find solace at the piano? Journalists, they wanted to parcel the world up in their neat little phrases. I was devastated, she parroted. I felt my world had fallen apart, yes. There was money and hotel rooms and applause and dresses, but there was no one. Until him. A doctor. A good man, she thought.

He’d picked up her hand that first night, at the after-show party (he hadn’t been invited, she later learned; he’d talked his way in). ‘We’re not so different, you and me. Our hands are what matter.’

‘You’re a surgeon?’

‘Something like that.’ He held on too long. His hands were huge, they hid hers totally. ‘How do you manage all those notes?’

She began to talk about reach and the difficulty of playing when you were a woman with small hands. He seemed engrossed. She laughed when she found out it was all an act; he had no idea what she was saying. She shouldn’t have. Because in fact they were so different, her and him. She could never pretend, that was her problem. And him – he was only too good at it.

Conway was saying, ‘And your own family – you were orphaned young?’

She flinched, as always when anyone brought it up. ‘Sadly.’

‘Only child?’

Oh, please, go away, please. She moved to pick up a stray napkin that had fallen under the coffee table. How unbearable it was, other people tramping over her carpet, their shoes still dirty from the graveside. Touching things, leaving streaks and fingerprints.

He swilled the whisky in his glass. She didn’t offer more. In a minute, she was going to throw him out, and manners be damned.

You’re a disgrace.

Shut up, Mother.

Conway said, ‘Funny thing about that crash. They said no one else was involved, he just went into a tree?’

‘He must have lost control. Maybe there was – an animal or something, or maybe a fault with the car. They don’t know yet.’

‘He’s a good driver, though. Isn’t it funny?’ Oh shut up, go away, stop talking about him in the present tense, he is gone, gone! He’s dead!

She made herself smile. ‘You were a good friend to him, James. Thank you. Now if you don’t mind, I’m just a little . . .’

He spoke over her. ‘We were good friends, yes. The thing is, Elle, and I’m sorry to mention this right now, I really am, but Paddy, he owed me a few bob.’

‘What?’

‘I lent him money. You know, as a friend. And now I’m in a bit of a tight spot.’