“Thanks.” Lucy lay back with a sigh. “We used to go for picnics in the grounds of Mortimer Hall when we visited Verity back in the day,” she said. “It’s nowhere near as old as Gunpowder Cottage, is it? I thought it was an ugly sort of house and didn’t like it much when I was a kid, but the grounds were lovely.”

“That should get you the job,” Finn said approvingly. “Perfect interview answer.”

Lucy giggled. Beside her, Geoffrey snored in his sleep, twitching as he chased dream rabbits. Lucy felt light and happy. Being with Finn felt very easy.

Overhead the sky was fading to violet and deep blue and the first of the stars was coming out. The splash of the ducks on the water sounded loud in the quiet and somewhere in the tangle of trees a tawny owl called, a shrill kee-wick that sounded fierce. Lucy smothered a yawn.

“Did you manage to get hold of a locksmith?” Finn asked.

“Yes, thanks,” Lucy said. “An emergency one came out from Swindon within the hour. I’ll get another set of keys cut when I go into Highworth to see Cleo tomorrow,” she added. “I imagine the letting agents will want one.”

Finn propped his head in the crook of his arm so that he could look at her. “We keep a spare in the safe at the cottage in case of emergencies,” he said, “so if you could get two extras, that would be great, thanks, assuming you don’t mind us having one.”

“That sounds like a very good idea,” Lucy said.

Finn was frowning. “I did wonder whether that was how someone had got a copy,” he said, after a moment. His voice was more hesitant than Lucy had heard it before and she rolled over to look at him properly.

“What do you mean?” she said.

“You know I said that Persis and Charlie had a bit of a thing going at the start of the year,” Finn said. “They were quite close for a while and I know Charlie talked to her about the garden project, but I don’t think... I can’t imagine he’d give her the keys to the barn...” His voice trailed away as though he wasn’t sure.

“Do you think they might have met there?” Lucy said carefully. “Or that Persis maybe knew the code to the key safe?”

Finn shook his head. “The code is changed with every booking for security reasons,” he said, answering the second part of Lucy’s question first, “plus the barn was let almost solidly through the whole of the spring. There were only a couple of weeks when it was free.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I wouldn’t have thought Charlie would be so irresponsible as to use it when it was empty but...” His mouth tightened. “I can’t discount the possibility. I mean, I was up at the cottage, and although I wouldn’t have minded him bringing someone back, he might have preferred more privacy...”