‘We’re both very well, thank you. And yourself?’

‘Great, thanks. Both children away – yippee.’ Esther pulled a comical face and then waited for the electronic security gate to take its usual age to open. ‘See you,’ she called, enjoying the flap of her summer skirt against her bare legs as she pushed the bike across the courtyard, keeping to the path between the grass that was not for walking on and the pristine borders of yellow and purple pansies.

Parking the bike out of sight under the arch of Lucas’s staircase, she took the flight up to the first floor two steps at a time, humming to herself. His door was slightly ajar, so she went straight in.

‘Surprise…’ she began, breaking off at the realisation that the room was empty; although not for long, to judge from the open door. Esther went to peer out of the window, down at the bright, geometric beauty of the empty courtyard, absorbing the pleasing hush of the place without the students. Lucas had said something about seeing Ralph Conway, his closest friend as well as the college’s Senior Tutor, to discuss admissions.

Esther strolled to his desk, where his laptop was flashing its screensaver of the Grand Canyon. Printer paper, she remembered suddenly, thinking of her own laptop, now containing a finished summary of Barbara Hepworth’s life, which she had been unable to print off because of running out at home. Esther opened the desk’s side panel of large drawers in search of stationery. The bottom, final one contained paper, but only a thinnish wad, so she knelt down to separate out ten or so pages to keep her going. As she slid the remainder back in, her eye was caught by a small, grey phone, lying along the back of the drawer. She fished it out, seeing that it was a mobile, a very small old-fashioned one, not dissimilar to the first model they had bought Lily. Esther turned it over in her hands. Lily’s had been blue. This one was stone grey. A Samsung. Heavy footsteps and men’s voices sounded on the stairs, and a moment later Lucas bounded into the room, followed by Ralph, his crinkled light brown hair in the wild mop that always made her think of candy floss.

‘Esther,’ Lucas exclaimed in surprise.

‘Yes, I thought I’d drop in.’

‘Hello there, Esther,’ Ralph said, in his warm Glaswegian rumble, waving over Lucas’s shoulder and grinning. ‘How lovely to see you. Are you well? You look well.’

‘I am, thank you, Ralph.’ Esther had got to her feet, still clutching the paper and the phone. ‘I decided to come by and then remembered I needed some printer paper.’ She flapped her pages. ‘The Hepworth retrospective, I’ve been doing a bit of the catalogue.’