Clio took Grace’s hand in hers, and Grace felt her daughter run her thumb up and down the veins that stood proud just as she had done when she was a child. ‘And what about you, Mum?’ she said. ‘What must this all be like for you?’

Grace took her daughter into her arms so that she couldn’t see her face, and held her there tightly. ‘Oh, I’m all right, darling. Don’t worry about me,’ she said quietly, and then bit her lip hard to stop the tears.

It was three full days before Hector was ready to speak to her. Grace was aware of his presence as he moved, ghostlike, from one part of the Hall to another, but whenever it seemed as if their paths might cross, he slipped away. He would talk when he was good and ready, Grace knew. She just had to bide her time and wait.

On the third evening after the trip to Whitley Bay, Grace was collapsed in front of the television, a glass of wine in her hand. She wasn’t really watching whatever was on, but she found the low voices comforting and it stopped her having to think. When she heard Hector stomping through the Hall towards her, her heart sank. She didn’t have the strength for another row. Not now.

Hector began speaking without preamble the moment he appeared in the room. He had the dishevelled look of someone who had slept in their clothes, his hair unwashed and a light sprinkling of sandy stubble shadowing his cheeks.

‘We need to go to the solicitor’s,’ he said. ‘Tomorrow. This “love child”’ – he drew air quotes around the words – ‘of Dad’s can’t be allowed to make any sort of claim on his estate. We need the situation to be watertight and crystal clear. I don’t want her challenging the will. She’ll no doubt think she’s entitled to a third of everything. She may even try to get her hands on this place. She has to be stopped.’

He wasn’t thinking straight. There was no provision in Charles’s will for any of his children. His entire estate, such as it was, had passed directly to Grace. And when she died she could leave whatever she liked to whomever she chose, although now probably wasn’t the wisest time to point this out to Hector.

‘Get yourself a drink,’ she said quietly, nodding at the drinks cabinet.