The following day, Harry and Sylvia arrived late in the afternoon, an hour earlier than expected, but thanks to Mrs Barley’s efforts everything was presentable. Jack had finished work early, but had barely walked through the door when their car pulled up. I had just bathed Elodie and she looked gorgeous in her teddy-print pinafore dress and soft lacy jumper. I needn’t have worried about the house – all eyes were on Elodie, and the proud grandparents couldn’t get enough of her. Jobie was vying for everyone’s attention and lay at Harry’s feet, gazing up at him adoringly. I noticed the dog didn’t seem as keen to sit by the newly fashion-conscious Sylvia, who, despite being accustomed to ‘muck’ as Jack put it, had upon arrival declared her concerns about him jumping up on her new trouser suit with dirty paws.

‘I’m sorry, but I’ve had enough of our four-legged friends to last me a lifetime,’ she declared. ‘It’s so nice not to have to worry about mud and fluff, and snags in my clothing any more. I can actually feel presentable whenever I go out these days.’

I noticed surreptitious eye-rolling from Jack and his dad, and looked away, trying not to snigger. I wondered how Harry was adjusting to his new role as a man of leisure, and more than once while we were seated round the table that evening, noticed a faraway look in his eyes. I imagined that being around Sylvia for long periods of time could be quite oppressive.

Jack had once told me how, before her marriage, his mother had aspirations to be something rather more glamorous than a farmer’s wife, and that although she had eventually embraced the role when she had fallen for Harry, it was not without a degree of reluctance. From various sniping remarks, it was now glaringly apparent that much of her existence, and what she clearly considered drudgery, at the farm had been under sufferance. Perhaps their new lifestyle in Spain was, in her eyes, helping her to claw back some of those lost years, but I wondered at what cost to her relationship with her husband.

Eventually Elodie became tired and grisly, and I decided to put her down for a nap.