I had to sweep the befogged windscreen clear once I’d started the car, and then I wondered whether I was safe to drive, if my senses stayed as chronically heightened as they’d grown by the spring. I was grasping the wheel and staring through the passes of the wipers when Bella said “Would you like me to drive, Patrick?”

“It’s kind of you to offer, but you can’t any more than Roy can. You won’t have a licence at your age.”

“If you need help there’s nobody about to see.”

“I’ll be all right,” I vowed, and eased the car forward despite yearning to accelerate out of reach of a sound like liquid fumbling at the roof. The trees receded behind us, letting sunlight into the car, and I wasn’t even slightly blinded. I was celebrating how fast we could speed away from Brightspring when the road straightened out, revealing that it came to a dead end.

My mouth grew parched at the thought that we’d have to go back, but I tried not to betray to my passengers how I felt. As I swung the car back and forth and twice again across the constricted road, the movement seemed to rouse the jar in Bella’s bag. I was certain I heard a whisper of mud, although surely it wasn’t articulate. It ceased as I sent the car back along the lane, but soon it was replaced by a spongy hiss beneath the wheels, the whisper of the stream that traced the windings of the road. I didn’t want to hear this separating into syllables, but I couldn’t ignore the peremptory tapping of drops on the roof, which sounded as if they were determined to penetrate the metal. However much the wipers squealed while they strove to keep the windscreen clear of moisture, the glass persevered in growing as mistily grey as the underside of the treetops. When I glanced at the efforts of the rear wipers in the mirror, I saw Roy had closed his eyes, surely not from fear. Bella’s were as wide as ever, looking eager for experience. She met mine and gave me a smile that might have been sharing a secret, except that I had no idea what it might be – perhaps no wish to know.

The trees and the impatient tapping fell behind at last, and the sun shone into the car again. It seemed to waken Roy, though with a shiver. “Are you all right, Roy?” I said.

“I’m fine, dad.”

Despite having provoked all his teenage resentment, I had to carry on. I felt somewhere between prudent and irrational for checking Brightspring and its environs were out of sight before I said “Are you sure all this is good for you both?”

“If it is for Bell it is for me.”