Perhaps he was repeating it; his tone implied as much. I couldn’t have said whether I resented the interruption or was glad to be released from the oppressive trance. I was about to ask how the picture looked to him when he said “Here’s someone who wants to meet you.”

He was with a girl something like his age. She was half a head shorter, slim with large pale blue eyes in a slightly chubby face. She had a small nose and a mouth my mother would have called petite. Long blond hair close to silver almost hid her ears, the tiny lobes of which were virtually invisible. She wore a black T-shirt and denim overalls too baggy to outline her shape, and sandals that left her long narrow feet not far from bare. “Bella,” Roy said, “this is my dad.”

She stepped forward swiftly and gracefully to clasp my hand. Her grasp was cool and light but firm, not to mention sufficiently brief that I wouldn’t have minded a prolongation. I was instantly impressed by her confidence. “Very pleased to meet you,” she said, “Mr…”

“Not Mister anything. Well, it’s Semple like my son, but you needn’t use it. The name’s Patrick.”

I wondered how unnecessary my babbling sounded, since Roy looked embarrassed. I thought I was doing my best to put the girl at her ease, but perhaps the attempt was more for myself. “Thank you for giving it to me,” she said.

I found her turn of phrase charmingly odd. “So you’ll be Bella.”

“I will be.” She smiled at my words or her own. “I am.”

“Can I guess you’re at school together?”

“You can guess,” she said, and her smile widened as far as her small mouth would allow. “Go on.”

I was disconcerted to feel she was flirting with me, not least because the notion seemed presumptuous on my part. “Then I’m guessing you’ve known each other for a while.”

The laugh accompanying her smile came from my son. “We’ve only just met, dad.”

“Well, you’ve certainly fooled me.” This sounded rather too accusing, even if it was aimed at nobody in particular. “I expect it’s your generation,” I tried adding.

Bella gave me a gentle big-eyed look. “What is, Patrick?”

“If you want to know someone these days you go straight for them.”

My suggestion left me feeling out of my depth if not out of place, but Bella stayed serene. “Maybe we just know who we like at once.”

“That’s the easy part. It was for me.” I was addressing Roy as well now. “Getting to know your mother,” I said, “that was more of a task.”

“Maybe you never really did.” Presumably this made him need to explain “My mum and dad split up.”

“True enough,” I said, not without pique. “You shouldn’t be too ready to believe you know anyone.”