“Of course I did.” Even though innocent of the apparent crime, he felt his face flush under Jackie’s continued stare. “Listen, contrary to what you think, I am still looking for a job.”

“Really? Excuse me if I find that rather hard to believe, Dan. There’s certainly not much evidence of it up in your office.”

Dan’s eyes momentarily flickered up the stairwell. “When were you up there?”

“This morning.”

“Why?”

Jackie let out a long sigh. “I wasn’t actually going to your office, Dan. I went up to fetch the hairdryer from Millie’s room. But the door of your office was open, and I did happen to notice that your computer didn’t have its screensaver on.”

“So?”

“It still had an unfinished game of solitaire on it.”

Dan laughed. “Oh-oh.”

“Don’t think it’s funny, Dan,” Jackie replied sharply. “You cannot go on hiding up there, day after day, doing nothing.”

“For heaven’s sakes, I’m not doing nothing!”

“But you’re not bringing any money into the household, Dan. That’s what we need.”

“I know we do, but hey, listen, we’re not on skid row yet.”

“We’re not? In that case, I seem to have misunderstood our present circumstances. You’ve lost your job and most of your money on the dot.com fiasco, and because of that, the children have had to change schools, we cannot afford to go on a summer holiday for the first time since Josh was a baby, and you’ve also been forced to trade in your rather comfortable Mercedes for a fifteen-year-old Saab. Well, forgive me, Dan, if my opinion differs from yours. I would say that we’re pretty damned close to being on ‘skid row.’ You need to get a job, Dan Porter, because my income won’t support us forever. I may be the managing director of Rebecca Talworth Design Limited, but the position doesn’t carry huge bucks with it, because we’re still ploughing profit back into growth.”

“I understand all these things, but as I’ve said countless times before, it’ll take a bit of time to find another job.”

“We don’t have time, Dan!” Jackie cut herself short by glancing at her wristwatch. “And I certainly don’t have time to discuss all this now.” She walked along the short hallway, avoiding the schoolbags that lay ready for the day, and opened the front door, allowing the warm September sun to flood in across the stripped pine floorboards. Dan followed on behind her into the small front garden. He stood barefoot, his hands still thrust into the pockets of his shorts, as he watched his wife open the gate that led out onto the tree-shadowed pavement of Haleridge Road.

“Could you tell Nina that I will try to make her concert tonight?” she said, closing the gate behind her.

Dan nodded. “See if you can be there this time.”