‘OK, thanks,’ Clancy agreed. Maybe a glass of wine and a giggle would set her on an even keel. Allow her to relax and let the future take care of itself.

She grabbed a glass from the kitchen area and then a new bottle of white, as she saw Genevieve upend the last one over her own glass, giving Clancy a smile she didn’t know how to take. Clancy smiled back though, and tried to initiate a conversation.

‘Is the work finished at your cottage—’

Genevieve turned to talk to Hugo as if Clancy hadn’t spoken.

Irritated, Clancy tried to talk to her cousin but the wine seemed to have made Alice feel combatant as she kept breaking into the conversation between Genevieve and Hugo to snark at Hugo.

Hugo, perhaps to pass the snark on, turned to Clancy. ‘Where do you go when you’re out so much? You can’t spend all day making beds and cutting lawns,’ he demanded loudly.

Clancy bristled. ‘No,’ she said, briefly.

Genevieve turned her attention to Clancy too. ‘Is it true what Alice told us?’ she quizzed her. ‘That you found out your last boyfriend was cheating by seeing video of him having sex on the desk in your office?’

Alice clapped her hand over her mouth. ‘Genevieve! I told you not to say anything!’

‘Sorry,’ said Genevieve, sipping wine with no sign of repentance. ‘Forgot.’ But she cocked her head at Clancy as if still hoping for an answer.

‘His office, not mine,’ Clancy corrected her stiffly, glaring at Alice, hurt she’d over-share like that.

Hugo snorted a laugh, scratching his beard. ‘Will lost control of the head he doesn’t think with, eh?’

Resisting the temptation to throw her glass of wine over someone, Clancy picked up her bag with her laptop in it, made sure she had her purse and car keys, and excused herself, thinking dismally how much she’d loved the Roundhouse before Alice came back.

She spent the evening in a pub in Brancaster, eating alone and working on her laptop. It was a pleasure to have a fast, reliable connection, she thought, then reflected ruefully that it was only a day or so since she’d been happy that Nelson’s Bar was so cut off.

She emailed her parents, putting on a chatty front, enthusiastic about the possibility of investing in the B&B. When my dosh comes through I’ll have plenty of money, she wrote. There’s not much in the way of business opportunities in Nelson’s Bar so while I don’t want to rush into anything, I don’t want to miss out either. She went on to tell them about Alice, not saying anything about the ripples her return was causing or that Hugo was a knob.

Or that she’d been spending a lot of time naked with Aaron but she wasn’t sure whether it would go anywhere.

Or that he’d turned cagey today when she’d talked about the B&B. Or that his mother was chilly. Or that his ex-girlfriend was hostile.