“God, how frightening for you.” Cleo leaned across the table and touched her hand. “I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

Lucy felt like hugging her for the simple acceptance. “Thank you,” she said.

“I don’t think it’s likely that you’re losing your mind as such,” Cleo continued, spooning cappuccino foam out of her cup. “I know you’ve been through a lot but you haven’t shown any signs of it affecting you mentally through delusions or hallucinations, or at least not until this experience that you had yesterday.” She frowned. “Why would it only start now, when you’ve been ill for several months?” She took a mouthful of coffee. “Are you sure it isn’t simply a series of random things that have scared you? I mean, nightmares can be pretty frightening, and that might put you off-kilter sufficiently to feel that there was some sort of malign presence in the barn.”

Lucy was shaking her head. “I’d really like to think you’re right,” she said, “but I know there’s more to it. I mean, yesterday, when I felt the ‘presence’ of someone, I think I triggered it myself. I tried to play the violin and it was going so well that I was madly happy and then the pain came back and I felt devastated, you know, and it was at that moment I felt as though I’d connected with someone else’s pain as well...” She turned her palms up. “Does that make any sense at all? It feels as though there’s some sort of pattern here.”

Cleo nodded slowly. “And the hallucination about the fire?” she said. “What happened there?”

“I’d met Finn down by the lake,” Lucy said, then seeing Cleo’s smile: “Don’t look so smug, it wasn’t planned, and we were just chatting! Anyway, he went off to fetch some kindling to make a campfire and when I turned around there was a building I hadn’t noticed before on the other side of the lake and it was going up in flames. Then a second later, Finn was back and he hadn’t seen anything and I realized I’d imagined it all, or hallucinated or something... I suppose him mentioning a campfire might have put the idea in my head, but then to think that I was watching a burning building?” She shook her head. “You’ve got to admit it’s strange. And the dreams aren’t normal either.” She shivered convulsively. “You’ve no idea, Cleo, how creepy it is to be looking out from behind someone’s eyes and sharing their thoughts and feelings whilst knowing you are trapped there...”

“It sounds as though it could be some sort of astral projection.” Cleo was frowning. “Your soul or spirit entering another body.”

“Whatever it is,” Lucy said, “I find it very weird.”

“Less supernaturally, you’re right that it could be the effects of your illness,” Cleo said. “You’re exhausted and you’ve had a lot to deal with. That sort of stress can come out in some strange ways, but—” She hesitated. “I don’t know. That explanation doesn’t feel right to me. Having said that, I’m not a doctor.”