The chair was slung low, and his head was level with hers.

Her hand moved across the bedcover towards him and he rested his own gently on top of it. She tried to pull herself up, but the effort was beyond her.

‘Here, I’ll help you,’ he said earnestly. Putting her head onto his shoulder and supporting her back with one hand, he eased her forward and pulled the pillows up against the headboard behind her. He could feel her rib cage and shoulder blades pressing through the cotton of her nightdress. How frail she was. Delicately, he laid her back on the pillows again.

She closed her eyes, concentrating on catching her breath, her chest barely moving. Cal sat still and waited.

Mary’s hand stretched towards the black leather-bound Bible that had rested on her bedside table for a lifetime.

‘Would you like me to read for you?’ asked Cal gently.

Her chin moved closer to her chest in an almost imperceptible nod.

He thumbed through the thin, well read pages. As a child he would have known an appropriate passage, but all that inculcated knowledge had long dissipated. He scanned the flickering leaves, hoping that he might chance upon something that would touch his memory. Matthew. Mark. Luke. The Gospels. John. John. Why did John strike a chord? From his mother’s funeral. What was it? Chapter Eleven. It all came back to him. Jesus comforting the sisters of the dead Lazarus. It seemed right. His throat was thick as he read out loud. ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.’

Cal wished he could have read in the Gaelic, Mary’s mother tongue, the way she had most often heard these words through the years. But he sensed that she found calm enough in what he said. Soon she drifted back to sleep. He sat watching her breathe for an indeterminate time before falling asleep himself, the combination of a late night and the early start overwhelming him.

When he was woken by the sound of a movement in the house, it took some moments for his mind to catch up. When it did, he jumped up and leant across Mary, fearful that she had already gone. The seconds were long before her shallow breath fell again.

Footsteps came lightly across the hall and there was a gentle tap. The floor creaked as Cal moved to the door and pulled it ajar. It was Mairi.