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Hannah laughed nervously. ‘What do solicitors look like?’
‘I don’t know,’ mused Joyce, unleashing a hacking cough. ‘But not like that. He’s positively yummy.’
‘I suppose he is,’ replied Hannah, fussing with the strings on her racquet so Joyce wouldn’t see her blush.
‘Definitely not the kind of man you’d expect to find in church.’
‘I guess not. I got lucky, I suppose.’
‘Hmm,’ said Joyce, watching Hannah carefully. ‘Maybe you both got lucky. You seem very much still in love, even after all these years.’
‘Yes,’ said Hannah, desperate to change the subject. ‘How are your sons doing?’
‘They’re splendid,’ Joyce said with a beaming smile. ‘Dominic is here tomorrow, actually. We’re having a little tennis tournament on Friday, just some people from the village. Will you still be here?’
‘Sadly no,’ said Hannah. ‘We’re heading off on Thursday.’
‘That’s a crying shame, although possibly more for you rather than Graham. Poor chap; he seems so co-ordinated on land, but on a tennis court he’s almost comical.’
‘I think he was feeling the pressure,’ said Hannah. ‘He needs more practice.’
‘Well, you’re both welcome to use the court any time.’
‘Thank you. Which one is Dominic? Is he your eldest?’
‘He is,’ nodded Joyce, carefully grinding her cigarette end with her tennis shoe so she didn’t start a local wildfire. ‘I don’t think you’ve ever met him, actually. He’s thirty-five, works in something called “wealth management”, which I think is just helping rich people avoid taxes.’
‘Sounds lucrative,’ said Hannah with a smile.
‘It is. Extraordinary that he’s still single, really, but he keeps telling me he still has wild oats to sow. He’s got two Maseratis and is quite the ladykiller, by all accounts.’
‘I’m sorry we won’t get to meet him,’ lied Hannah, thinking that Dominic sounded dreadful.
‘Don’t be silly,’ said Joyce dramatically. ‘You can come over for dinner tomorrow evening. He and Graham will have lots in common.’
Hannah laughed breathlessly, wondering what on earth Joyce had worked out about Rob. ‘Like what?’
‘Well, I don’t know,’ said Joyce, wafting her away. ‘Finance, law. It’s all the same, isn’t it?’
Later that afternoon, having left Rob in possession of Barnaby’s kitchen, Hannah and her dad put water bottles in a backpack and hiked up the road to the old village at the top of the hill; it was a tough climb and they said little on the way up, dodging scooters and cars on the narrow lanes. Eventually they reached the village square and headed down a scrubby path to the left of the church that brought them out to a lookout point. It was easy to miss it if you didn’t know it was there, but well worth hunting for because it opened out onto a breathtaking view of countless hilltop villages.
They sat on a low bench against the church wall, sipping water and getting their breath back. ‘I can see why you’d want to live here,’ she said, taking in the rolling patchwork of yellow, green and umber that made up the vast landscape of southern Spain.
‘I never wanted to live here,’ Barnaby said quietly.
‘What do you mean?’ she asked, turning to look at him.
‘How was Luke’s eighteenth birthday?’
‘Umm, OK, I guess,’ said Hannah, confused by the sudden change of subject. Luke’s eighteenth had actually been a stilted family dinner with Graham and her mother, which Luke had escaped the minute the food was cleared away, no doubt to meet Dan.
‘That’s good,’ said Barnaby breathlessly, his eyes brimming with tears. ‘Eighteen is a good age.’
‘Dad, you’re being weird,’ said Hannah with an awkward laugh. ‘Can we talk about this?’
Barnaby sighed heavily and patted her hand. His were large and leathery with callouses on his palms from years of keeping his house standing. He’d worked as an accountant when Hannah was a child, mostly for small businesses run by other members of the church. He’d done well enough to buy a house here and set up a successful practice in Spain until he’d retired a few years ago. Now he played tennis, grew tomatoes and pottered around the house doing maintenance jobs. It clearly wasn’t a bad life, but Hannah wondered if he was lonely.
‘Have you and your mother ever talked about what happened?’
