‘Do take a seat,’ the Chaplain urged companionably, indicating the larger of two armchairs on either side of a small fireplace. She then set about filling a small plastic kettle from a corner basin, keeping her back to Heidi as she dropped teabags into two large mugs, both blazing the message ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. ‘Milk?’

‘Just a little, thank you,’ Heidi murmured, half an eye on the mantelpiece beside her, where several official invitations fought for space among ornaments and a silver-framed photograph of a younger version of the Chaplain with her arms round a couple who, Heidi guessed, had to be her parents. Next to that was a box of tissues.

‘I love Sunday afternoons,’ the Chaplain chattered as she filled the mugs. ‘Between services and meals. An in-between time. Tolstoy talked about in-between moments, didn’t he? How, for all our grand plans, all the most important things happen in the lulls, when our backs are half turned. Sugar?’

‘No, thank you.’

‘Ooh, I wish I could give the stuff up, but I can’t.’ She stirred one mug vigorously and then handed the other to Heidi, dropping into the second armchair.

‘Those are your parents?’ Heidi glanced up at the photograph.

‘Bless them, yes. And me when I was a slim brunette.’ She let out a hearty laugh, leaping from the chair to fetch a tin of assorted biscuits, which she placed on the little table between them before sitting back down. ‘Tuck in, won’t you?’ she said, taking one herself. ‘Lucas mentioned that you had a lovely visit to your parents before the start of term…’ She paused to brush a few stray crumbs off her chest. ‘That must have been nice.’

‘Oh, yes,’ Heidi said quietly. ‘I am very lucky to have a wonderful family…’ She took a swig of the hot tea, shocked to hear the melancholy in her own voice.

‘It can’t have been easy for either of you, these last few months.’

‘No.’ Heidi found herself examining the bourbon biscuit that she had selected and did not wish to eat.

‘Though resolution, thank the Lord, was found,’ the reverend continued evenly. ‘No one thinks Lucas did anything wrong, as such. It was a lack of understanding more than anything, a miscommunication—’

‘But it has broken him,’ Heidi cried, the words erupting out of her before she could stop them. ‘He is not… the same. I don’t know if I can fix him… if I… am enough… if we have enough…’ She threw herself back in her chair and closed her eyes.

The Chaplain sighed heavily. ‘The truth is, no one can fix anyone, and in my humble experience it is invariably a mistake to try.’