Albert sighed. ‘Oh dear, what a tangle,’ he said sadly. ‘But I’m afraid, dear Janine, that you have brought it on your own head. If you’d read my letters properly you would have known that we gave up the idea of an ice cream parlour a long while ago. We didn’t have the knowledge, you see. And when the right sort of premises came along it was my friend Edie’s granddaughter who started up a business, neither Edie nor myself, though Edie did become a partner; a senior partner, in fact.’

Janine scowled. ‘But I’m certain you said you had some sort of interest in an ice cream parlour,’ she persisted. ‘Don’t try and lie to me, Dad, because I can see right through you. You and this Edie woman were just using the granddaughter to keep anyone else out, and that anyone else is me. I wouldn’t have come home if I had thought I was coming home to nothing.’

Albert felt anger well up in him, but he reined in a desire to tell his daughter a few unpleasant truths. Instead, he spoke with measured calm. ‘Janine, please listen to me. You failed to read my letters properly because the truth is, once the Atlantic was between us, you lost all interest in your “dear old dad”. In fact you’ve only come home for what you can get . . .’

‘Oh, Dad, how can you! To say such a thing to your own flesh and blood!’ Janine wailed. ‘When you said you had an ice cream parlour I guessed you’d be hard pressed to make it pay because you’ve not had experience of that sort of retail trade. I made Mario give me a bit more money, which I mean to use for any improvements needed to make the ice cream parlour support us both. I presume the tobacconist’s is doing okay, though you hardly ever mention it now, but the ice cream parlour . . .’

Albert’s careful hold on his temper began to waver. ‘Be quiet and listen to me,’ he said sharply. ‘There is no ice cream parlour; do you hear me? No ice cream parlour! Mrs Williams and her granddaughter are running a very successful pet shop. They gave up the idea of an ice cream parlour because the premises they rent would not be suitable, and besides Tess knows a great deal about animal husbandry. It is true that when they started the business I put in a small amount of money to help with setting-up expenses, but that has long been repaid . . .’ he crossed his fingers behind his back, since despite Tess’s many offers he had never allowed her to refund that by no means negligible sum, ‘so please forget the idea that either you or I can have anything to do with the pet shop.’

He expected an angry retort, remembering how the old Janine had hated being crossed, but to his dismay his daughter flung herself down on the table and began to weep.