‘Then I found out I was pregnant . . . No, hang on, I’m missing something out. It was still early days when something really shit happened to him and I was just there, you know . . . it sort of made us a couple in other people’s eyes . . .’

She was chewing on another piece of grass, her legs tucked forward a little, droplets of water caught on her calves, her hip bones jutting out through her jeans, her slender arms resting against the curve of her body.

‘What happened?’ she asked, because she could. These were the rules. I shifted position, leaning on my elbow and mirroring hers.

‘He doesn’t talk about it, actually, so don’t bring it up.’

‘I won’t.’

‘He was driving in north London somewhere and he knocked someone over. This woman. She died later in hospital.’ (You’d have a minefield with him, Dr. R.)

‘Oh, good heavens!’ Ness said. She often used rather sweet, old-fashioned expressions. ‘How awful.’ She covered her mouth with her hand.

‘Yes.’

‘How awful for him.’

‘As I said, don’t mention it, will you?’

‘I wouldn’t.’

I passed her the spliff. ‘It wasn’t his fault. It was a young woman. She was having a row with someone and walked out without looking and bam . . .’

‘My goodness! Poor Karl.’ This was the first time I’d heard her have empathy for him and I liked it. Sometimes I felt that she didn’t really trust him in some way.

‘He went into a kind of shock and then he just refused to speak about it . . . he still won’t get in a Citroën,’ I said.

‘He’s such a happy sort of person,’ she said, somewhat incongruously. She sat up and folded her arms around her knees. I looked at her lovely smooth back. Her hair was up and some of it had fallen down. If I was a man I’m pretty sure I’d fall in love with you.

She turned and passed the spliff back to me.

‘Is it hard, living with someone like Leah?’ I asked her.

‘You mean the fame? Or Ms. Misery Guts?’ She smiled, looking round at me. I meant the latter; she knew that. ‘I suppose I’m so used to it. I don’t think I could bear someone endlessly cheery. They’d get on my tits.’