‘But we’ve come all this way,’ objected Hector. ‘And now that I recognise the place it’s all starting to make a little bit more sense. What say you we go and get a 99 for old times’ sake and have a walk on the beach? The tide’s out, look!’ He pointed at the sea which was indeed far enough away to reveal a wide ribbon of golden sand.

‘No,’ said Grace, her voice so sharp that both her children snapped their heads round to look at her, their brows furrowed in confusion. ‘We should leave,’ she continued. ‘It was a wild goose chase coming here in the first place as I shan’t allow you to evict the tenants, no matter what you want to do. And you have no right disturbing them anyway, Hector. Aren’t they entitled to quiet enjoyment of their property? Isn’t that what it’s called?’

‘I hardly think that knocking on their door once will put us in breach of that, Mother,’ replied Hector in a such a patronising tone that Grace briefly considered stripping him of his job as her estate manager there and then. ‘In fact, now I come to think about it,’ he continued, ‘we should probably introduce ourselves whether we’re going to evict them or not. They have a right to know who their landlord is, after all. Let’s go for a walk and then call again on our way back.’

When he put it like that it all sounded completely reasonable, and Grace struggled to think of any further way of objecting without making him suspicious of her.

‘I still think we should leave them in peace,’ piped up Clio stroppily. Grace noticed that her cheeks had turned quite pink in frustration at her brother’s attitude, and she felt grateful to have an ally. ‘They are going to be shocked enough by that ridiculous letter that you sent, Hector, without us all turning up on their doorstep.’

‘Let’s go down to the beach and then we can see how the land lies when we get back,’ said Hector in the kind of over-reasonable tone that Charles had sometimes used to get his own way.

Grace sighed and glanced at Clio, who was raising her eyebrows questioningly at her. It almost felt, Grace thought, as if she and Clio were defending Leah together and, even though this couldn’t be true, Grace liked the idea.

And so the three of them trooped down the pavement side by side towards the beach.