‘Is it the ghosts?’ Rav puts his arm around my shoulders, pulling me in close, as Mina sits on his opposite hip. ‘They do say Pluckley is one of the most haunted places in Britain.’

‘Oh, shut up!’ I nudge him, and he laughs before pressing his mouth to mine.

‘Just think about it, Allie. Away from the dirt and noise of the town, friendly village life, this amazing garden for the kids to grow up in. We can take our time doing it up, there’s no rush if it’s our forever home. And it’s a bargain.’ He pauses for a moment, the smile dropping from his face. ‘I can’t live there anymore, Al. All I think about is getting away from it all, so it’s here or back to Goa.’ Rav laughs to show he doesn’t mean it, but I know that a secret tiny part of him does.

I look back at the house, and let myself imagine it tidy and freshly painted, full of our things, our longed-for second baby lying in my arms, and I feel a fizz of excitement in my veins. Rav is right, this could be our forever home. ‘It looks like it’s Pluckley then.’

Now, I sip my water and look over the herb borders, one ear open for the baby monitor. The beds are full of sage, lavender and chamomile, mixing with the heady perfumes of roses and jasmine, clashing with the harsher scents of rosemary and mint, all tangled together with weeds. I should work on them, I think, I’m a florist. I can tame them and make the borders less bedraggled and sad-looking while I’m at home on maternity leave. It’s not fair to expect Rav to do it all, not with the hours he’s doing at work. There is a chirp from the baby monitor, and I take another mouthful of water before draining the rest of the glass into the herb bed. As I straighten up a flash of white catches the corner of my eye and I pause, half leant over the scraggly border. There is someone in the trees. I stand stock still, watching the dark shadows of the woods. The branches sway in the light breeze and I think for a moment I must have imagined it, when I see it again, a flash of white moving through the trees at a pace, a glimpse here and there before it vanishes and doesn’t reappear.