Helena sighed. ‘I’m delighted if he’s nice, but you know Mum, she’s vulnerable. She can be taken in by anyone.’

‘I don’t think you give her enough credit. She must have to judge character every day with her business. Think how she’s made your old house into a B & B that’s so good it’s practically a boutique hotel. You can’t do that if you’re an idiot.’

‘I know,’ said Helena, feeling chastened but not reassured. ‘But I worry about her and men. She made such a bad choice when she picked my father, I’m not sure she can make good decisions about them.’

‘This may not be an actual thing. They may just have gone to the opera together and never see each other again.’ It was Amy’s turn to sigh. ‘You know what men are like.’

Helena did relax a bit now. ‘True.’

‘I wouldn’t have told you if I thought you’d worry about it. I just thought you’d be pleased Gilly had had a night out with a good-looking man.’ She paused. ‘Why don’t you give her a call? Not to tell her off, obvs, but to congratulate her. Say you’d heard and you’re a bit jel.’

Helena laughed properly now. ‘She won’t believe I’m jealous! But, on the subject of men, have you met our gorgeous landlord yet?’ Helena realised that she hadn’t thought of him as gorgeous before and now she’d described him as such Amy would get overexcited.

‘No, I didn’t go in the end as I had someone else in my sights – I told you. But you didn’t describe him as gorgeous – I might have called round anyway.’

Helena shrugged.

‘So have you done anything about him?’ Amy went on, firing up all her regular arguments. ‘You need to get in there! You can’t just stand back and hope that he’ll do something, he won’t! Men are totally lazy when it comes to women.’

‘Probably because if most women are like you, men have them crawling all over them. They don’t have to make an effort.’

‘And women do!’ Amy was very clear on this point.

Helena was very tempted to say something about her and Jago, but she held back. It might rebound on her. So instead she said, ‘Well, my mother obviously doesn’t seem to have to make much of an effort. I’d have known if she’d had her eye on this silver fox.’

‘Give her a call,’ Amy repeated. ‘But don’t tell her off!’

‘As if!’ said Helena, although she took the warning to heart. She would be very casual, as if she wasn’t remotely worried about who her mother went out with.

She waited until early afternoon, when her mother was likely to be at her desk sorting out her diary, before she rang.