‘Good,’ Ned nodded. ‘I thought you might be, so I’ve made a steak and ale stew in the slow cooker. I hope that’s all right? You’re not vegetarian, are you?’

‘Sounds great,’ I said, and right on cue my stomach growled. ‘And no, I’m not.’

‘In that case, why don’t you put your bags in your room and freshen up and I’ll start plating up?’

I didn’t turn the lights on in my old room. In fact, I barely opened the door. I just put my bags on the floor and nudged them inside with my foot. I’d deal with any emotional reaction to the sight of the room at bedtime and in private. I wasn’t really expecting there to be one, but then I hadn’t expected to well up at the sight of the lodge either, so it was probably best to err on the side of caution.

‘I meant to say,’ said Ned, handing me a plate filled with stew, soft and fluffy dumplings and glossy, green kale, ‘I’ve taken the spare room opposite yours. I hope that’s okay?’

‘Of course.’

‘I have been in the big double room,’ he said, his eyes briefly meeting mine. ‘But only to bleed the radiator and occasionally open the windows.’

‘Thank you,’ I quietly said.

That had been Dad’s room and I knew it would still be just as he had left it. Not for the first time, I wished I’d had the courage to make decisions about what I wanted to do with his and Mum’s things when I was at the very bottom of the pit of grief, rather than having to face it all now.

‘So,’ said Ned, when I didn’t say anything further, ‘Dad tells me you’ve been working with some challenging students for the last few weeks, what’s that been like?’

He poured us both a glass of wine and I told him some of the more amusing anecdotes I’d accumulated, along with further details of what my real job as an art therapist entailed and how much I missed it.

Being stuck in a classroom for the last few weeks had hit hard after all the hours I’d formerly spent outside with the small groups of students I supported, encouraging them to use the natural world both as inspiration for their work and as a balm for their troubled souls. I didn’t venture into details about my freshly formed business plans. It was my intention to only reveal those when Ned, David and I were all together.

From what his dad had already said, Ned struck me as an astute businessman and I was pretty certain that he would pick up on the fact that an enterprise such as the one I had in mind would require more than a teaching salary and savings to get it off the ground.