‘Where’s Clancy?’ demanded Daisy, letting go of Lee’s hand so she could skip up and down on the floorboards yodelling, ‘Clanceeeeee, Clanceeeeee, Clanceee-eee-eee.’ Nelson joined in with a few skips of his own, barking.

Though relief thundered through him at the sight of his brother and his niece quite obviously safe and well, Aaron was not going to put Clancy off this time. He pointed at Lee and hissed, ‘Stay there!’ then stuck a finger in his ear to try and hear Clancy on the phone. ‘Are you OK?’

‘Yes.’ She sounded reassuringly familiar and composed. ‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you last night. I was up till all hours and then I overslept. Will escaped the accident with cuts and bruises but Renée and Monty are still unconscious. Asila’s come round but has concussion. They’ve all got upper body injuries – ribs, shoulders and clavicles. Monty has a broken leg, too.’ She dropped her voice. ‘They hope that Will and Renée’s baby is going to be OK. There’s a normal heartbeat, the baby’s moving and there’s no bleeding but they’re going to keep her under close observation. At least she wasn’t behind the steering wheel. They were all in the car together because they were coming home from some shindig Renée’s company had put on. Hang on.’

Her voice receded while she spoke to someone. It was muffled but sounded like, ‘Yes, I will, but just give me a minute.’ Her voice returned. ‘Will’s in shock. His parents are on holiday but they’re trying to get flights home. His sister Mel’s just rung to say she’s walking from the tube station and I said I’d drive her to the hospital. Asila’s husband got to the hospital last night, and Monty’s mum. Tracey was the only one from IsVid not involved because she’s on holiday too.’

‘I hope everyone recovers quickly,’ he said automatically, his stomach dropping at picturing Clancy with Will – even a Will who was probably going out of his mind about his wife and baby. He and Clancy used to share their lives and Aaron felt jealousy creep across him. Vaguely, he was aware of Lee taking Daisy out of the kitchen, followed by the sound of the TV in the sitting room.

Clancy was still speaking. ‘Will was trapped in the car with everyone bleeding and unconscious. It must have been horrific.’

He agreed, hating himself for minding the caring note to her voice, the familiarity when she talked about Will’s family and her old friends and colleagues. He wanted to check she was coming back from London but now was not the time to turn possessive, even if he did think, in the circumstances, Will was frigging lucky that Clancy would drop everything to support him.

‘Anyway, I have to tell you something before Mel arrives,’ she went on. ‘I’m afraid I’ve got Harry and Rory again.’

‘Why?’ he asked blankly.

She half-laughed. ‘Crazy, right? I was throwing my bag in the car when they came up. Harry was upset. He said someone suggested to Jordy that Harry’s gay so Jordy asked him outright. He said yes.’