She jumped up. As the only landline phone was on the wall in the kitchen area where Hugo and Alice could listen in, she decided to stroll up to Potato Hall Row without first checking whether Aaron would be at home. She grabbed the hair dryer and blow-dried her hair smooth, applied a squirt of perfume, then she was ready to run down both flights of stairs to the living area.

‘See you later,’ she called, trying to sound affable, although Alice had now joined Hugo on the sofa watching some action movie exploding across the TV screen, despite Possession Mountain still cluttering up the place. Clancy closed her eyes to the mess and hurried out into the freshness of the evening, where moths danced in the halos around the streetlights that were just coming on.

Her pace slowed as she rounded Aaron’s workshop, her attention stolen away by the beauty of the silver-pink sky and the sun sinking into the sky’s silver-pink reflection. Then a quiet diddle ing-ding, ing-ding, ing-ding ding from a guitar came from behind her and she turned to see Aaron sitting on the bench smiling at her, a guitar across his lap. ‘Hey,’ he said, rising, holding the guitar with one hand so he could hug her with the other arm. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to call me back. I left a message with Hugo this morning.’

Nelson suddenly raced out of the house, performing a little shadow box in front of Clancy before dropping down to let her fuss him. ‘Did you? He didn’t pass it on.’ Her heart lifted to know Aaron had tried to reach her. ‘Honestly, he’s a waste of space and even Alice admits he’s a pain in the arse …’ She halted as a movement caught her eye and she realised that Lee, Yvonne and Norma were seated in garden chairs in amongst the long shadows by the back door. Heat flashed into her cheeks. ‘Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise you were with family. Hello,’ she finished feebly, wishing she hadn’t just said ‘arse’.

Lee, Yvonne and Norma returned her greeting.

Clancy fell silent at the sensation of so many eyes upon her, eyes that belonged to people who were not pro-Alice. Perhaps she should gracefully extricate herself. If Aaron had phoned her this morning and he’d just hugged her in front of his folks, she could probably be reassured that he wasn’t withdrawing from their … whatever it was. ‘Well,’ she began.

‘Well,’ Yvonne got in ahead of her and jumped to her feet. ‘We should be getting back. We’ve left Fergus babysitting Daisy. Ready, Norma? Careful with your crutches. It’s not far to the car.’

‘About the same as it was in the other direction,’ Norma responded testily, rising to her feet and steadying herself.

‘I didn’t mean to chase you away,’ Clancy said uncomfortably.

‘You’re not.’ Yvonne gave Clancy a wintry smile, then glanced at Lee, who hadn’t moved. ‘Coming?’

He raised his eyebrows, looking more like Aaron than usual. ‘I wouldn’t want Dad to think I didn’t trust his babysitting capabilities. I’ll see you later.’