There were already a lot of changes to their lifestyle due to this huge commitment they had taken on with the house, but just over a week after moving here he was loving the challenge and not regretting it for a moment.

‘Breakfast, darling!’ Caro called out.

‘OK – just need to have a quick shower!’

He’d completed a fifteen-mile bike ride, exploring some of the surrounding lanes, and was feeling exhilarated and happy, although a lot more tired by the ride than he would normally have been, he thought. Perhaps because he’d had no rest so far this weekend. Yesterday he’d taken a few hours out from helping Caro to move furniture, unpack and unwrap their best crockery and glasses, hang paintings, and pore over paint charts and wallpaper and fabric swatches, to drive across West Sussex to the Goodwood race meeting.

But it was a short visit, principally to see his client, Charles Cholmondley, and photograph his stand at the Revival meeting to add to the website, but he’d also wanted to visit the other classic car companies which had stands and put his business card around. He was going to need to generate a lot of business to earn enough to get this place into shape. Caro’s income would cover the hefty mortgage and additional bank loan interest payment, but he was going to have to start earning serious money again to pay for the renovations. It was only after living here for the past week that he’d started to realize the full enormity of their undertaking. Everything was in even worse condition than they had realized, and the pool was just a tiny part of it. Despite that, he still loved it here.

The pool was surrounded by a collapsing wooden safety fence, and tiles had fallen in big chunks off the sides of it. The large pool house, close by, was so rotten he could push his finger right through parts of its walls.

A man from the pool company had been to survey it, and confirmed just what a poor state of repair it was in. Many of the remaining tiles were loose, and there were deep cracks in the walls. The heating and filtration system were archaic, and had not been used for decades. Just about everything would need replacing. Pool parties looked like a very distant dream. Right now he was even reluctant to pay the cost of having the Range Rover’s busted wing mirror repaired.

He turned and gazed at the rear of the house. It was quite different this side from the elegant Georgian facade. It was more stark and institutional-looking, and cluttered on one side with the old stable block, part of which had been converted into the garages, outbuildings and two storage sheds. One housed the lawn tractor, strimmer, hedge-cutter, chainsaw and other garden maintenance equipment they’d had to buy, the other was filled with rolls of rusting chicken wire and a large stack of logs that looked, mostly, infested with woodworm.

He stared at the windows, trying to work out which belonged to which room. The downstairs at least was fairly straightforward with the kitchen and scullery windows, the door leading out from the atrium, then the twin sash windows of the dining room. The upstairs, with its different levels, was harder to figure out.

Twenty minutes later, showered and dressed in jeans and a fresh T-shirt, he had a quick breakfast of cereal and fruit, glanced through the Sunday papers, then helped Caro to lay the table. She had a girlfriend popping over to see the house this morning, then the in-laws were coming to lunch.

‘Try and get Jade up,’ she asked him. ‘I’ve tried to wake her twice already.’

Despite the fact that he’d driven their daughter into Brighton yesterday morning and let her stay with Phoebe until 10 p.m., she’d thrown a strop in the car on the way home because she was going to have to stay in and have lunch with, as she called them, the old people, instead of being able to go back into Brighton and spend Sunday with her boyfriend, Ruari, and her other best friends, Olivia and Lara.

Ollie went into her bedroom, opened the curtains, and pulled back her duvet. Bombay was asleep, curled up beside her.

‘Dad!’ she protested.

‘Your mother needs help. Up!’ he said.

The cat eyed him warily.

Jade lay in her pyjamas and looked up at him with her large blue eyes. ‘Did you mean what you said about getting a dog? A labradoodle?’

‘Yes, darling, I did. I think a labradoodle would be great!’

‘Olivia’s getting a Schnauzer next week. And guess what, I’ve found a labradoodle breeder in Cowfold that’s expecting a litter next month!’ she said.

‘OK, we’ll go and have a look after they’re born.’

Jade suddenly cheered up. ‘Great! Promise?’

‘I promise! So long as you promise to look after the dog. Deal?’

‘Deal! Can we get an alpaca of our own, too?’

‘Shall we get a dog first? There are enough alpacas out in the field!’

‘OK.’

Ollie then climbed up to his office to work on the final revisions of the classic car website. He had promised Cholmondley yesterday that he would send the amended test site to him by the middle of the week for final approval.

As he sat in front of his computer, tantalizing smells of roasting beef wafted up. Two hours later, at 12.30, he heard the sound of a car, and peered down from the window overlooking the drive. His in-laws’ maroon Volvo was pulling up beside his Range Rover and Caro’s Golf. Moments later he heard the doorbell.

Normally he would have waited until Caro called him, but today he was on a mission. As the doorbell rang, he logged off, then hurried downstairs, just in time to join Caro in greeting the sweet pair of oddballs and lead them through into the drawing room.

His father-in-law, Dennis, was dressed as usual in a tweedy three-piece suit. His only concession to the heatwave was to have the top button of his Vyella shirt open and to sport a paisley cravat instead of a tie. His mother-in-law, Pamela, wore a white lace-trimmed blouse and a floral confection of a skirt, with pink Crocs.

‘So, it’s still standing, eh!’ Dennis said with a smile, looking up and around him. ‘And you’ve made up your mind to buy it, then?’

‘They have bought it, Dennis,’ his wife reminded him. ‘We helped them move in last week.’

Dennis frowned, looking bewildered. ‘Ah, right, if you say so, dear.’

‘You’ve done wonders with this room,’ Pamela said, enthusiastically. ‘What a transformation!’

‘It’s coming along, isn’t it?’ Caro said.

‘G and T, Pamela?’ Ollie asked his mother-in-law.

‘I’ll pass on the G and just have the T, thank you.’

‘A snifter before lunch?’ he asked his father-in-law.

‘Hmmn,’ the old man said, peering at the fireplace. ‘Rather fine marble this. Could be an Adam. Hmmn. Make sure the buggers don’t try to remove it if you do buy the place. I fancy this would be worth a few bob to some of those dealers down the Lanes.’ He then peered up at the ceiling. ‘Nasty damp patch up there. I’d get a survey report before you make an offer. Yes, I think an Amontillado sherry, thank you, Ollie.’ He pulled a leather cigar case from his inside pocket. ‘Want to join me outside in a little smoke before lunch?’

‘We thought we’d have lunch outside, actually, Dennis. I’d love a cigar later.’

‘Do you have some shade?’ Pamela asked, dubiously.

‘Yes! Bought some big parasol umbrellas from the local garden centre yesterday.’ Ollie led them through the atrium and straight out onto the rear terrace. As his father-in-law lit a cigar he went back indoors to prepare their drinks.

When he returned, Dennis was wandering down the lawn towards the lake, puffing away. Pamela was sitting in the shade of the two huge umbrellas, clearly uncomfortable in the sticky heat. Ollie put her tonic on the table, then sat beside her, cradling a bottle of cold Grolsch, and looked around. Neither Caro nor Dennis was in earshot.

‘Pamela, Friday last week, the day we moved in, when you and I were standing in the porch, you saw something, didn’t you?’