All along the walls on the opposite side were tumbledown greenhouses, and in the centre stood a tall, ornate wooden structure that had clearly once been painted white, but was now looking sadly in need of attention. Not of scrap of glass remained in its sides or roof.

‘That was the lemonry,’ Vic said.

‘Do they really grow lemons?’

‘Not any more, they don’t.’

‘Do you remember telling me about it when we met on the Cliff Path that day?’

‘Did I really? I was in such a state.’

‘You were, a bit.’

‘Talking to you helped, you know.’

‘I’m glad.’

‘It’s just that . . .’

‘Just that . . .?’

‘You remind me of him a bit. You’re so positive, like him.’

‘Him?’

‘The friend I’d lost that day. My best friend.’

She struggled for something to say that wouldn’t make him feel worse, and then remembered Ma talking about visiting a newly widowed friend: ‘We spent an hour talking about him and at the end she thanked me, because the worst thing is when people never even mention his name, as though he’s been completely forgotten.’

‘How do I remind you of him?’ she asked now.

He sighed. ‘It’s just . . . Oh, I don’t know. He was always so optimistic. He loved life and he had such a loving family. Two charming children. I miss him so much.’

‘Clever too, I assume?’ she coaxed.

‘Not only clever, but thoughtful, you know . . .?’ He tailed off, and she waited. ‘He’d think around a problem rather than just charging in. We made a good team.’ Vic looked up at the sky, as though he could see his friend there.

‘I’m so sorry. You must miss him horribly,’ she said, moved by his obvious distress.

A long pause, and then, ‘Don’t think me crazy, but sometimes I think he’s still here. He talks to me.’

Kath was momentarily silenced. Was this man some kind of ghost-believing nutter? She tried to formulate a sensible response and came out with the first thing that came into her head. ‘Do you believe in souls?’

He laughed, although she couldn’t see what was funny. ‘Oh yes, Hindus are very keen on the afterlife,’ he said. ‘It’s a kind of bargain. Behave well in this life and you will rise through the ranks in the next one.’

‘And if you’re bad?’

‘You come back to earth as a dog, or a worm.’

Her turn to laugh, now. ‘Or a frog? Fancy having to fight with so many others and then getting eaten just as soon as you managed to clamber out of the water.’

‘Do you?’

‘Do I what?’

‘Believe in souls?’

‘D’you know, I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that. I don’t believe in ghosts, if that’s what you mean. But souls? I suppose in the vague way that we all believe in some kind of God, mostly because it’s just too horrible to imagine there isn’t some kind of afterlife, that we just go pop like a lightbulb when we die. So yes, I think I do believe in souls, although exactly what it feels like being just a soul without a body is pretty hard to imagine.’ It was the longest speech she remembered ever making, and very probably the most curious and fascinating conversation she’d had for a very long time. The clock on the stable block chimed seven. Two hours seemed to have passed in minutes.