‘Come on, we did!’

‘Were you and I in the same house yesterday? Your father criticized the champagne, saying it was too young, and that I should know to keep it at least two years before opening it. Then he had a go at me for not leaving the foil on the neck of the white burgundy because it makes the bottle look more elegant. And then he told me I’d served quite the wrong red with the turkey and I shouldn’t have decanted the bottle because it wasn’t of a quality or an age that needed it. Oh, and when I cut him a piece of Cheddar he yelled at me, “ne coupez le bec”, because I apparently cut it from the pointed end, which must have ruined everyone’s Christmas.’

‘He’s very fussy about his wines, you know that.’

‘I did my bloody best. Next time I’m sodding serving him some of Mrs P-W’s bargain prosecco. Can I actually do anything right for him?’

‘He means well; as I’ve said before, it’s just his blunt way.’

He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. ‘Look, babes, I’m sorry, we’re both rattled; let’s cool it. This house is not falling down. We have a problem with subsidence and there’s been a tiny bit of movement, that’s all. There’re some hairline cracks in the ceilings and some cracked windows.’

‘Some? Every ceiling, window and mirror in the house. Why are you in denial about it?’

‘I don’t think it’s dangerous,’ he said, flatly. ‘And I don’t think a ghost did it. Ghosts might be damned spooky, but I doubt they have the power to cause subsidence!’

‘So everything is fine, is it?’

‘I’m not saying that, I know it’s creepy, but there has to be an explanation – this is an architect-designed house and the build quality is very high.’

‘Oh, really, that’s why it’s falling down, is it?’

‘It’s not falling down. New buildings often move from subsidence – or settlement – which has put everything out of alignment, causing the walls to twist a fraction. That’s all it would need to do to create the cracks; just the tiniest movement. They all twisted a little and that caused the windows – and the fixed mirrors – to crack. That doesn’t mean the place is falling down.’

‘Is that what you’re going to tell me when we wake up, crushed and trapped inside fallen masonry? If we wake up?’

69

Thursday 27 December

Despite her anxiety, within minutes of going to bed Emily fell into a deep sleep. Jason lay awake for a long time, reading a Linwood Barclay thriller she had given him for Christmas, but unable to concentrate. He kept staring up at the thin, jagged crack all the way across the ceiling, watching to see if it worsened.

Finally, shortly after 1 a.m., he put the book down and switched off the light. He woke with a start a while later. The clock showed 2.24 a.m. Emily was still sound asleep, breathing deeply. Not wanting to wake her, he reached across, lifted his phone off his bedside table, switched on the torch app and shone it upwards. So far as he could judge, the crack was still no larger – if anything it actually looked less bad, but that was probably because of the weak beam of light.