Aaron, who’d listened to this with mounting disbelief, kept calm only with an effort. ‘Clancy did not invite Alice back and her turning up out of the blue, complete with a husband and her usual blithe disregard for anybody’s wellbeing but her own, has put Clancy in a seriously uncomfortable position. Gen sounds as if she’s making mischief! Both of you seem to be conveniently disregarding the fact that the house belongs to Alice as much as to me – though I sometimes wonder whether buying Lee out of the property to allow him to start again was really doing him the massive favour I thought at the time.’

A silence stretched out. Yvonne’s eyes began to turn pink. ‘Then I should say I’m sorry,’ she said in a small voice. ‘I shouldn’t have taken Genevieve’s word for it.’ She turned a beseeching gaze on him. ‘But do understand, Aaron. It’s hard to stand back and do nothing when a situation might affect your son.’

Aaron made his voice soft because, although annoyed, he knew she was misguided and impetuous rather than mean or stupid. Her heart was soft and he could imagine Genevieve finding it just too tempting to utilise that to put in a bad word for Clancy. ‘You have two sons.’ When Yvonne’s lip trembled he sighed, reaching out to lay his hand over her soft-skinned one. ‘I understand you feel protective of Lee. I’ve been overprotective of him myself but you have to remember that Clancy is not the enemy here! If you decide to be offhand with the woman I’m seeing then I’m going to be deeply disappointed.’

At the sound of the kitchen door opening behind him he stood up, assuming it would be Lee coming home and seeing that as his cue to leave. ‘I didn’t want to believe young Harry when he said that the only way to have the relationship you want is to move away from this village, but right now I can see what he means.’

From behind him, Jordy’s voice suddenly rang out, dangerous and deep. ‘What do you mean about Harry? What relationship? You obviously know something I don’t.’

Aaron’s head swivelled so quickly that he almost cricked his neck. Lee had let himself into the kitchen all right, but he had Jordy in tow.

Thinking fast, Aaron gave a credibly impatient shrug. ‘Why do you always sound so suspicious of him? It’s what you’ve been saying yourself, isn’t it? He needs to get out of the village and go to uni. Meet new people.’

‘I suppose so,’ Jordy said slowly, his eyes fixing narrowly on Aaron as if not a hundred per cent convinced.

But then Lee, looking a bit unfocused, clapped Jordy on the shoulder and mumbled goodnight, and Jordy fell silent until they’d heard his uncertain footsteps mount the stairs. Then he said, ‘Lee came looking for beer. He looked like he’d had plenty so I thought I’d better see him back.’ He’d assumed the slightly worried expression Aaron realised had become the norm for them all when talking about Lee.