Margot stands in the front porch and pushes her feet back into her recently vacated wellies. The sky is brooding but there’s no rain yet so she takes this chance to make her way across the field to the caravan park. The wooden shed that they’ve converted into an office for the site is empty but she can see through the window of the coach house that Adam is in. His face is illuminated by the computer screen. Has he picked Ethan up yet from nursery? It’s nearly six. She raps on the door and he lifts his head, annoyance crossing his features at being disturbed. When he sees it’s her he waves, although he still doesn’t smile. He gets up and she imagines his lumbering gait as he goes to answer the door.

‘You okay?’ he says, as he pulls the door open.

‘Do you want me to pick Ethan up from nursery?’

‘Nah, you’re all right, Marg. Mum’s gone to get him. He’s staying the night at hers. I think being here makes him miss Heather more, y’know?’

She nods, trying to quash the jealous feelings in the pit of her stomach at the thought of Gloria spending all this time with her precious grandson. She knows it’s for the best, but she wants him.

Adam stands aside to let her in and the two of them take up most of the space in the small, square hallway. The ceilings are low, and there are parts of the house where Adam has to stoop. Margot had been thinking lately that as Heather and Adam extend their family they could move into the main house and she’d come here. The house is too big for her now. All those empty rooms, Flora’s still as it was when she last used it. She wonders what will happen if Heather doesn’t wake up. Or if she goes to prison. Will Adam still want to be here, running the caravan park? Leo’s already left. She bought him out five years ago. After Flora went missing, all his spark and humour slowly seeped out of him, and he spent longer and longer away from Tilby. Then, one night a year or so later, when he was out of his head on whisky, he admitted that he couldn’t stand being here any longer, that he was fed up with the stares and silent accusations of the locals that he, the only young man living at Tilby Manor at the time, must be responsible for Flora’s disappearance.

‘Do you want a cuppa?’ asks Adam now. He looks haggard, thinks Margot. She wonders if he’s eating properly. In the week that Heather’s been in hospital Adam has sometimes joined Margot for dinner, and a few nights he’s stayed in one of her spare rooms for company, but most of the time he’s sequestered in here.