Bette didn’t turn from the stove. ‘Yes, something very much like that.’

‘Hmm.’ Hessel dabbed his mouth with a white serviette and turned to me. ‘Anna? Is this right?’

‘Um . . .’

‘That’s all it said, Hessel,’ said Bette, turning now. ‘And look! Here she is!’

‘Is the letter here? May I see it?’ Hessel directed this question at me, and Bette looked at me with suddenly large eyes.

‘I . . . I left it in Sydney I think,’ I said, trying not to think of where it sat stashed in my coat pocket in the bedroom behind Hessel.

Hessel nodded. ‘Okay, Anna. Okay.’ He scooped up his second egg, and chewed it slowly and thoughtfully. Once he had swallowed it, he laid down his fork. ‘I do not know why it is that you put her in this room just here, Elizabeth? The other front room has nothing in it. Nothing at all.’ Bette grew still, but Hessel kept on. ‘But it is no matter. Anna, you are welcome,’ he pronounced. ‘You are most welcome. It is all okay. You can stay as long as you would like. You will like it here.’ He smiled beneficently at me, and then stood from the table, turned to Bette, and raised his arms.

‘Elizabeth, a delightful breakfast. A beautiful meal from a beautiful woman.’ And for a moment he was so like Opa. I missed this so much, this old-world charm and character, the heavy European-ness, reaching back and back and back. The warm overt displays of character. My heritage.

As he left the table Hessel stood briefly behind Bette at the stove and rested his hands on her shoulders, and she turned and they shared a polite kiss. It was very sweet. He was sweet – obviously a bit of an attention-seeker: he clearly didn’t mind having me here as some new audience around the place, but he seemed like a bit of a sweetie, this Hessel van Leeuwen. My new grandpa.

Hessel lifted a coat off a hook by the door and his expression changed quickly – he slumped into almost a parody of sadness. ‘But I am so terribly sorry, Anna, for now, I must go. You have been a beautiful distraction for me in a very sad time. My horse is very sick, you see. I must go and tend to her.’

I would have laughed then, at the sudden change in him, but clearly his pain was genuine. ‘Oh, Grandpa, I’m so sorry to hear that –’

‘“Hessel” will do just fine,’ he said, and suddenly I felt as though I’d been slapped, but when he turned back to me he was wearing a smile. ‘“Grandpa” really does sound like a very old man, don’t you think? It does not suit me.’

He must have seen I was a little taken aback. He came and gently took my hand and stood me up, then took a good look at me. He turned me from side to side.