‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked about your family.’

‘I think that classic phrase “we’re not upset, just disappointed” is one that could be applied to this particular situation.’

‘That’s always a good one.’

Jack gave a glimmer of a smile, which this time reached his eyes.

‘I was sorry to hear about your parents,’ he said. ‘They were both wonderful people.’

‘Thank you. Some days, it seems a long time and others, like yesterday. It was a shock to have them go so close together, but I suppose it’s never the right time, is it? You always want more time with someone.’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Thank you for coming to both their funerals. We didn’t expect that. It wasn’t like you were round the corner.’

‘They’d always been incredibly special to me. There was no way I wasn’t going to pay my respects. You’d already been through such a lot as a family.’

I gave him a smile and looked across at the photo of Mum, Dad, Felix and me that Mike had taken and had framed for us a few months before he died. Within a couple of years, Mum and Dad would both be gone, too.

‘I think I spent most of my youth around your house. I was always so comfortable there, and if those cheese straws last night are anything to go by, you’ve certainly inherited your mum’s skill at baking.’

I pushed myself off the stool. ‘Flattery will get you nowhere,’ I said with a laugh in my voice before realising that my concentration had slipped and my slinky silk dressing gown had just flashed Jack a brief ankle-to-thigh shot before I grabbed it closed. Thankfully, he hadn’t appeared to notice. I put my breakfast things in the dishwasher and turned back to Jack, one hand securely on my dressing gown this time.

‘I’m sure my parents would have adopted you if they thought yours would have allowed it. Mum was always singing your praises about how lovely your manners were. Clearly, she only ever saw your good side.’

‘I only have a good side,’ he said with a wicked grin that immediately belied the words he had just said.

‘You’re forgetting I know you of old. You can’t pull those lines on me.’

‘People change.’

I couldn’t argue with that. People did change. But with a face and body like Jack Coulsdon-Hart’s, I found it hard to believe that he now only had a good side. Added to which, somewhere deep down, I couldn’t help think that if that was true, it was a crying shame.

‘What time is your first appointment?’

‘Not until half ten,’ he replied, the slightest antipodean twang resonating in the odd word, something else his parents probably wouldn’t be thrilled at. Personally, I liked it, it suited him. ‘If you’ve got time, you could show me around the garden and perhaps, when I’m not working, I could help you make it a little bit more manageable.’

I couldn’t help grinning. ‘You appear to have learned some tact on your travels.’