‘Reckon so. Not afore half-past seven. Pick you up then. All right?’

‘Lovely,’ the man said, and went into the station. Ed made and slowly smoked another cigarette. The whole procedure occupied twelve minutes. Throwing away the stub, he opened the door of the driver’s seat, thrust his head in and said:

‘D’you think something’s gone wrong? Where was you making for?’

‘Walwyk.’

Interest and amusement sparked in his face.

‘Canon Thorby’s owd Rolls? Punctual as Big Ben as a rule. Must hev broke down at last. Twenty-five years owd, but cared for like a baby. Still . . . Eh?’ he said. ‘You the lady thass taking Mrs Westleton’s place?’

She smiled. This was the first evidence of the intimate, friendly life in country districts of which she had read, for which she had longed.

‘Yes. I’m the new mistress at Walwyk.’

‘Fancy that. Well, look, s’pose I take you out there. There’s only the one road, and if we meet the Rolls, you can change over. And if I take you the whole way – fourteen miles, that is – I ’on’t hurt you. I’d do it for fifteen bob.’

‘But why should you?’

‘I’d like to see the owd place again. Got like they say about lost things, sentimental value for me, Walwyk hev. Thass gone twelve now,’ he said persuasively. ‘Something musta gone wrong for Baxter to be that much out. And do somebody get off the twelve-fifteen and want me, then I’d hev to dump you, see?’

‘Very well, then. Please drive me to Walwyk.’

The man with the bicycle made a timely reappearance and responded willingly to a request to ‘lend us a hand with this’. The luggage was loaded and the car moved out of the yard.

Selbury was a small town, little more than a single main street, bulging out in one place into a market square. The street changed almost imperceptibly into a suburban road, lined with newish-looking houses and bungalows, all set among flowering cherry trees and pink almonds.

‘If you look out on your left, just coming up now, white, with the blue shutters, see it? Thass Mrs Westleton’s new house. Lovely, they say it is, even the washing-up done by pressing the switch. Still, she deserved a bit of luck, she did.’

‘Why?’