The river house did not have a garden but when the water level was low Sally and Bob crossed the stones and sat on the opposite bank in the field belonging to the farmer David Cavendish, who didn’t seem to have much use for it himself. It was a very steep field, which, when the mornings were misty and Bob looked out of his studio through the diagonal skylight, could give him the impression that roe deer were bounding through the sky. The hearing of the sky deer was so sensitive that even the sound of Bob reaching into a bag of chilli-coated peanuts, a hundred yards away, behind glass, would startle them, but soon they became more at ease with his presence. Formerly, a horse called Edna had lived in the field and chomped apples off the branches of the old tree at the field’s centre. The tree was still there and it was not unknown for apples to cling to its branches until January. Edna had died way back in 2003 but Sally and Bob often speculated about her personality and the ensuing one of her ghost. Their conclusion that she was a very strict and disapproving horse became a running joke between them.

One day in summer 2019 a night of hot rain arrived, the river filled up with voices and Bob – unable to sleep – stood on the balcony naked for half an hour taking great pleasure in letting the full force of the saturated night hit him.

‘Goodness!’ said Sally. ‘What on earth must Edna think of you now?’