What have you been doing all this time? You must have been gone for seven weeks!’ ‘Six, actually, and I’ve been getting to know my grandmother,’ Chrissie told her mother with a wry smile. ‘Which has been most enlightening.’ They were sitting in the lounge of Vanessa’s London apartment and even through the windows, always kept firmly closed against the dust and rain, Chrissie could hear the familiar hum of the city: buses and cars swishing by, the steady chatter and clatter of feet and tongues, a church bell and the distant whine of a siren. Sounds she had once taken for granted and now couldn’t help comparing with the peace and solitude of the Lakes. ‘Don’t be pedantic, it doesn’t suit you,’ Vanessa snapped. ‘I found Georgia to be really rather a remarkable woman, obviously well liked and much respected in the town.’ She wanted to say ‘and with a remarkable story to tell’ but didn’t quite have the courage.
