‘Now, that is precisely what I did not want to hear. Thanks, Esther.’ He grinned ruefully. ‘Your two, they sound bold and great, though. Wow. I’ll be relieved when Lola makes it to six, let alone eighteen. But as for travelling the world… that will be out of the question.’ He blew air through his lips. ‘Blimey, yes, I don’t envy you that. I’m very lucky though. Izzie is flexible, and I get to see a fair bit of Lola – between doing things like legging it to the Lake District in order to slaughter fellow marauding hordes, that is. Not exactly the dream I had in mind when I entered the Lisbon Theatre and Film School fifteen years ago, but hey, it pays the bills. And keeps me fit. And I’m pretty good on horseback, even when carrying an axe. Sometimes – mostly – like I say, it’s a load of fun, but…’ He faltered for the first time. ‘Obviously not so much recently, what with… everything.’

‘Weren’t the Visigoths an offshoot from Ostrogoths?’ Esther ventured, noting the flinch of upset and wanting to give him time to compose himself. ‘Around the fourth century, I think. They attacked the Romans a lot and set up kingdoms in Europe… Spain and Gaul…’ She dried up, running out of knowledge.

‘You put me to shame,’ he declared, brightening at once. ‘I mean, I’m the Visigoth around here, right?’ He beat his chest, and then flung himself back into the chair, dangling the beer over the arm between his fingers. ‘Hey, this is nice, Esther. Really nice. Just what I needed. Thank you very much.’ He looked round her little room, crammed as tidily as she could manage with all her bits, and gestured with his beer bottle towards the piano, parked along the wall beside the front window. ‘You’ll be telling me you’re a concert pianist next. I heard you one time, through the wall.’

‘Did you? Oh, God, that must have been annoying – sorry. No, all I do is teach – a few beginners, frogmarched here by ambitious parents. They’re how I pay my bills, along with applying my magical skills to gobbledygook business copy. Whipping bullet points into something readable is my specialist subject, most recently on the scintillating theme of healthcare insurance benefits for women. Not the future I dreamt of either, but then that’s rather the nature of futures, isn’t it? They never quite come in the packages one imagined.’

He was nodding and smiling. ‘Esther, that is so true. Which means, surely, that you can add worldly wisdom to that skill-set list of yours?’