‘Good. She loved the view.’ Mrs Hoskine stopped on the threshold. Gramps wasn’t there and Gran was restless. Lottie had spoken with the nurse. Morphine would ease her breathing and reduce her stress, but Gran wasn’t having any of it and Gramps wouldn’t overrule her.

‘Oh dear.’ Mrs Hoskine took small steps to the bed. She cast a glance over her shoulder at Lottie. Her happy expression slipped away. ‘Oh, my dear.’ She picked up Gran’s hand. ‘There’s no rest for you, is there?’

Lottie frowned as she thought she’d misheard the softly spoken words.

‘I had no choice. I had no choice.’

‘We always have a choice my love, always.’ She straightened the covers on the bed then rested her hand on Gran’s shoulder. ‘You were wonderful to me and I hate to see you suffering like this.’ She turned to Lottie. ‘Can we do anything?’

‘Sadly no. She’s refused all but the most basic relief.’

She shook her head. ‘There’s no need to suffer like this. It won’t change things.’

Lottie frowned. What was she on about? Gran didn’t need to suffer but she did seem determined to.

Mrs Hoskine walked to the window. ‘So much sadness.’

‘Do you mean when my grandfather died?’

She nodded. ‘Everything changed.’

‘How?’

‘Well, once your grandfather was buried your grandmother let out the house.’ She sighed. ‘Under her instruction I put all personal items except the books away in the closets in the hallway and locked them up.’

‘Ah, that explains it.’

Mrs Hoskine turned towards Lottie. ‘What?’

‘Mum found pictures of her childhood last night.’

‘I asked about those, but your grandmother wanted it all locked away.’ She turned and looked at Gran. ‘I went against her wishes and sent my favourite picture of Mr Trewin and Diana together to the mite at school.’

Lottie swallowed, the diary.

‘I know that your grandmother was trying to make everything less painful . . .’ she paused, ‘but I’m sure it did the opposite. A soul needs to grieve properly.’

‘I found some of Mum’s old thing in the stables, too.’

Mrs Hoskine frowned then smiled. ‘Is that where they ended up?’

Lottie nodded.

‘I was going to post them to her, but we had the new tenants due and they arrived early.’ She shook her head. ‘I must have put them in there thinking I’d come back to them later and never did.’

‘How quickly did Mum and Gran leave?’ Lottie glanced at Gran, wondering if she was listening.

‘Just days after.’ Mrs Hoskine turned to her. ‘She came back down briefly for the inquest, the funeral and to hand over the keys to the agent.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Ah, Pete and I stayed on in the cottage as caretakers. Pete kept on gardening and I made sure no real damage was done to the house by the various tenants who lived here.’