‘The point is, she told me she got a first for that paper but the calculations are full of errors. No way that paper was worth a first.’

Still perplexed. Why is Nevis bringing this up now?

‘Could you have misheard?’

‘No! We had a conversation about it. She kept saying how chuffed she was.’

Honor takes a breath. It sounds like what Nevis needs right now is reassurance.

‘But, darling, everyone occasionally stretches the truth a bit to make themselves look better.’

She notes the scowl on Nevis’s face and kicks herself. Why can’t she get it right with Nevis? ‘I shouldn’t have showed you. I knew you wouldn’t get it.’

‘Give me another try.’

Nevis nods. ‘I spoke to a couple of Satnam’s friends but they got funny with me, like they knew something about Satnam that I didn’t.’

‘About her state of mind? Or something she did?’

Nevis shrugs. ‘I’m not good at picking up that stuff.’ Nevis bites her lip, considering this for a moment before deciding to risk it. ‘I’m going to go back and see the Dean.’

‘That sounds like a good idea, if you’re worried about it.’ Honor is struggling to put all this together. ‘Do you think Satnam could have been cheating? And got caught out?’

‘No, of course not!’ The flare of outrage on Nevis’s face is hard to bear. ‘Forget it, all right, it doesn’t matter. I just thought… never mind.’ She snatches up the sheets of paper, puts them into her backpack, closes the zip. ‘I’ve got to get going now.’

Honor watches her daughter disappear. Again. Whether Nevis’s real reason for coming to her was to get her opinion of Satnam’s paper or to talk to a friend or be comforted by a mother, she’d failed in all these things. Something has happened to my daughter since Satnam went to the bridge, Honor thinks, something new and very grown up and rather sad and I shall probably never know what.

Chapter 25

Cullen

Cullen is walking by the library when he spots Nevis Smith emerging from the lift. He stops and smiles.

‘How are you, Nevis?’

‘OK, thank you.’ She is red-faced. Shyness he thinks, but who knows. An odd one. Hard to read. He is hoping very much that she hasn’t got wind of the embarrassing escapade at the hospital last night, though if she has, he has already concocted a defensive strategy for dealing with it.

‘I got your email about coming to see me. I have a spare moment now if you like.’

He waits while she consults her phone. ‘I have a seminar group with Dr Ratner in forty-seven minutes.’