“It’s hard to read. It’s all handwritten. Bell read more than me, but we couldn’t find anything to do with dad’s aunt, could we?”

“That’s what we said.”

“I hope you’ve finished with it,” Julia said. “I’m back in the archive if you come looking for anything else.”

“Roy was saying you don’t care much for books.”

“I most certainly take care of our stock. Why would you say such a thing, Roy?”

“No, he says you think they’re out of date.”

“I think they may be in my lifetime. Certainly in yours.” As if she shouldn’t have evoked mortality just now Julia said “They’ll still exist if people want them, but I think they’ll be electronic.”

“That’s the way with old things. They come back in another form.”

Perhaps Julia meant to leave the past behind by asking “So how do you see your future, Bella?”

“I’ll know soon what I’ll be.”

“Roy isn’t too sure either, are you?” As he shut his eyes while he shook his head, Julia returned to Bella. “Have your parents any plans for you?”

“Less than I have.”

“What do they do themselves?”

“My father.” A pause left the phrase oddly isolated, as if Bella had displayed it for examination, until she said “You could say he was in research.”

“And your mother?”

“Mum, you’re interrogating her.”

“I hope you don’t think I am, Bella.” When the girl smiled rather than speak Julia said “You’ve met Roy’s parents, after all.”

“I’m happy to.”

“We should never undervalue parents.” Even less to anybody specific I said “Let them know they’re valued while you can.”

This appeared to inhibit the conversation, though I wasn’t sure who I’d left wary of speaking. After that we ate mostly in silence, Bella in particular making hardly even the discreetest sound. As she and Roy cleared away at the end of the meal, Julia said “I really should be going, Patrick. I’m in work early tomorrow.”

“Thanks for dinner and just being here for me. You too for dinner, Bella.”

“Anything I can do to atone for your loss,” Bella said.

I found this oddly awkward, unless that was how it made me feel. “Would you like anyone to stay tonight, dad?” Roy said.

“I’ll be fine. I need to catch up with my work.”

“Roy, why don’t you show Bella the sea,” Julia said, “and I’ll drive down and find you. Your father and I will wash up.”

“I like seeing it,” Bella told Roy. “It’s the oldest thing and it’s never the same.”

On her way out she lingered in front of my aunt’s annual portraits of me. “It’s like watching you for all those years,” she said, “seeing what Thelma saw.”