Clancy shrugged, not slowing her pace. ‘It’s OK. I’m aware she blames me for Alice being Alice. I just … don’t want to have to wallow in it. I didn’t mean to rush away from you but it’s been an emotional week.’

Her troubled expression caused him rising exasperation. Their relationship forever seemed doomed to going one step forward and two back but he wasn’t going to fall into the trap of letting her slip away, just because Aunt Norma hadn’t been particularly friendly.

He reached for her hand. It put a hesitation in her stride as she glanced at him, brows up. ‘Can we stop galloping so we can talk?’ he suggested, giving her hand a squeeze. It was hot. He was hot too. They’d all baked in the past weeks of high temperatures. Even the clifftop grass beneath their feet had become beige and dusty.

Clancy managed a half-smile and slowed down. She didn’t remove her hand, which was a good sign. He managed to ease their pace to a stroll. ‘The reason I was waiting on your doorstep like a parcel this afternoon was to talk to you. I’m sorry I had to let Harry take me off instead.’

‘How did it go for him with Jordy?’ Her brows lifted enquiringly. ‘He collared me before the meeting and demanded to know what the hell I thought I was doing taking Harry off to London without telling anyone. I apologised if I’d upset him and trotted out the stuff about Harry being an adult and that travelling with me was safer than hitching. He carried on chuntering though. I seem to have a talent for upsetting your family.’

Aaron frowned. ‘Sorry he had a go at you. Want me to have a word with him?’ When she shrugged and brushed Jordy’s complaints away, he related the scene he’d witnessed in Harry’s home. ‘And now we’re talking about something else again!’ he added feelingly. ‘I really want to have a conversation about us.’

‘Oh.’ Her gaze flickered and one eyebrow lifted as if she was considering asking, ‘What “us”?’

To forestall that, he plunged on. ‘I overreacted when you said you were going to London. I wanted to apologise, but Harry and Rory’s escapade kept getting in the way.’

Her gaze remained on him. ‘Do you want to know how things went while I was away?’ She said it as if it were a test but her steps were slowing all the time and she still hadn’t taken her hand from within his.

The wind swirled over them, warm and humid. Lilac clouds were gathering in the sky, seeming to press the day’s heat back at them. He thought about denying needing to know how things stood with Will, but … that wasn’t the way he was, so what would be the point? Carefully, feeling his way through a conversation that all his senses were telling him might be important, he said, ‘I don’t want you to feel interrogated but … yes. I would like to know how things stand.’