It was as Clancy was leaving the garden that she bumped into Yvonne coming in. ‘Oh,’ they both said, halting.

A variety of emotions flitted over Yvonne’s face. ‘I was looking for Lee.’

‘I saw him and Daisy walking Nelson,’ Clancy said, not feeling equal to a conversation with Aaron’s mum. ‘I just stepped into the garden for the Wi-Fi.’ She made a tentative move to edge past Yvonne who, she thought, was not a bad person. Just guilty of a monocular view of any situation involving her sons.

Yvonne moved too, making it harder to pass. ‘Clancy, can I ask you something?’

‘Of course,’ Clancy answered politely, hoping it wasn’t going to be anything about the present whereabouts of her cousin. In her current low state, a conversation about that would just about reduce her to tears.

A smile from the older woman. ‘You’re aware of what’s going on between Lee and Alice?’ She said ‘Alice’ as if she didn’t even want the word in her mouth.

‘I don’t know,’ said Clancy. ‘It depends what is going on, I suppose. If anything is.’

Yvonne looked wrong-footed, her complexion pasty, lines of anxiety gathering around her eyes. ‘Well … I know Alice is your cousin,’ Yvonne said, at length. ‘I just thought that maybe, as you’re seeing Aaron now, that you might feel—’ She paused, as if hoping Clancy would fill in the gap.

Clancy stayed stubbornly silent.

‘—you could tell me what’s going on,’ Yvonne finished in a rush.

Clancy turned sideways and made a more determined attempt to edge past. ‘It’s not my business,’ she said flatly. ‘Sorry.’

‘Oh, I’m not trying to interfere,’ Yvonne called after her. ‘I didn’t mean to suggest that.’

Clancy hesitated. Stopped. Went back. ‘I know you’re only looking out for your son,’ she said, trying to be reasonable and pleasant. ‘But Alice is thirty-four. I suppose Lee’s around the same age. Even if they’re heading for disaster, I’m afraid I can’t help you because I don’t know anything.’

A tear trembled on Yvonne’s lashes. ‘I know what you’re saying,’ she muttered. ‘But you’re not Alice’s mother. It’s easier for you.’

‘Is it?’ asked Clancy tiredly. She took her leave from Yvonne politely and walked back down Long Lane towards the Roundhouse. She was so sick of the day that she got into her Beemer without going indoors, did a U-turn in the lane and drove out of the village, swooping down Long Climb with a belly like lead.

She parked at the side of the road at the top of the hill in Old Hunstanton and walked down through the gardens into Hunstanton itself. She bought a cup of coffee from a catering van and jumped down onto the beach to sit with her back against the concrete wall to drink it, watching children build sandcastles and gulls wheel over tourists to see who they could mug for a muffin.

When the coffee was gone, she climbed a few steps and walked along the promenade until she reached the caravan park beside the funfair, and then she just carried on, all the way to Heacham. At a loss what to do when she got there, she walked back again, flopped into her car and drove back to Nelson’s Bar, her mind no more settled than when she’d started out.