She turned on all the lights and the television in order to distract from the creeping sense of gloom. Immediately the room was filled with the sound of Beethoven’s violin concerto from an orchestral concert at the Royal Albert Hall. Great, that was all she needed, a reminder of her previous life. She’d do better to watch a reality TV show or a comedy, something that didn’t have any personal resonances.

The storm broke overhead at that moment, a huge flash of lightning illuminating the barn followed almost immediately by a crack of thunder so loud the entire house seemed to shudder. The rain, previously a patter, started to beat a tattoo on the roof, getting louder and louder, drowning out the music.

Lucy reached for the remote to change channels but instead found herself transfixed suddenly, unable to look away from the screen, from the orchestra, from the life that was denied to her. She could barely hear a note now but it didn’t matter; she knew every last chord, every beat, every melody. It was within her, in her blood, a part of her. A huge sadness raced through her like a tide.

She watched the sweep and glide of the violinists’ bows and suddenly she knew she was going to cry, not daintily or with any self-control, but messily expelling all the feelings she had kept bottled up ever since she had come out of hospital. The emotion surrounded her, different now from the fierce rage she had felt before when her feelings had connected with Catherine’s anger and frustration, and had terrified her. Now she felt a huge sense of loss, Catherine’s loss as well as her own bereavement, as though her heart truly was breaking.

Even though she knew it was going to happen, the force of the sobs that wracked her took her by surprise. Then the anger rose in her as well as despair and it burned through her. She hated the unfairness of what had happened and felt Catherine’s impotent grief and fury possess her alongside her own.

She grabbed her violin from its case and ran to the door. It was a shock to step outside. The storm, for all its power, had been muted inside. Now the full force of the noise hit her, the rain pounding relentlessly on the cobbled yard, soaking her within seconds. The sky split with another livid flash of lightning, illuminating the trees in the orchard shivering beneath the onslaught. The thunder rumbled around the bowl of the valley.

Lucy wasn’t sure whether the water on her face was tears or rain. It didn’t matter. She didn’t really know what she was doing, other than that she needed to get away from the mockery of the music and she wanted to take her violin and smash it apart, venting all her misery in destroying it. Behind her the lights of the barn shone like a liner battered by a stormy sea but the yard was deep in shadow. When someone appeared out of the dark tunnel of trees that lined the path up to the cottage, she screamed.