‘Daddy taught me too. It must be one of those things that fathers are supposed to pass on.’ Clio took a deep breath, but she couldn’t stifle the sob. Her eyes filled with tears so quickly that it was only a matter of seconds before they were trickling down her cheeks. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said, reaching for a tissue from a box on the window shelf. ‘What must you think of me? But I still can’t think of him without . . .’ She waved her hand in front of her face and bit her lip. ‘I miss him so much. He was such a wonderful man. Such good fun to be around. Always the life and soul of wherever he was. He could fill a room on his own, you know the sort. I can’t believe he’s gone. I really can’t.’

I didn’t know what to do or say. It felt far too soon in our relationship to give Clio a hug but she clearly wanted to talk about her dad, so I decided to show interest and indulge her.

‘How old was he?’ I asked.

‘That’s the tragedy of it,’ replied Clio. ‘He was only sixty-seven. It’s no age, is it? It was an aneurysm. One day he was here, large as life, and the next . . .’ She took a deep breath and managed to compose herself. ‘And how about your father, Leah? Is he still alive?’

I shrugged. ‘God knows. He left us when I was eighteen. He and Mum had this huge row and he just walked out. That was the last I ever saw of him. He wasn’t around that much when Mum and he were married. He did something in high-level security. I was never quite sure what. It was all a bit hush-hush. Anyway, he was only home every few weeks, so I was used to him not being there. When Mum died I missed him loads, but I had no way of getting in touch. I sometimes wonder whether he ever even found out that Mum was dead.’ I looked out across the lawns so that I didn’t start crying too. A peacock strutted by nonchalantly, its tail dragging on the grass behind it. ‘I like to think that he’d have come straight back – if he’d heard, I mean – and not just left me to cope on my own.’

Clio immediately seemed to forget her own grief and shuffled over to where I was and threw her arms around me. So much for not having reached the hugging stage.

‘Oh, you poor thing,’ she said as she pulled me into her and squeezed me tight. ‘Of course he’d have come back. He would never have abandoned you. It wasn’t your fault that your parents argued and you shouldn’t have been punished for it. How did your mother take it, him just disappearing like that?’