‘Thank you,’ said Clancy politely, climbing into the back alongside the dog. Aaron suspected that Clancy took refuge in absolute courtesy when she didn’t want people to read her too accurately.

He took the driver’s seat and Genevieve twisted round as Aaron turned in the road, telling Clancy about her favourite subject: waking up one day to a substantial crack in her kitchen wall and discovering the ground was subsiding around the foundations of her cottage. ‘There must have been water leaking underground for ages, the builder thinks.’

Reaching De Silva House in less than a minute, Aaron reversed up to the double doors in the storage area beneath Aunt Norma’s flat, and they all climbed out of the truck.

Aaron turned to Clancy. ‘You’ll appreciate that Lee long ago disposed of his half of their furniture.’ He hauled one of the doors open with a rumble and a creak to reveal a dim interior of sheets flung over large objects.

They began removing dust sheets – disturbing a lot of dust – and assessed what lay beneath. ‘Two beds, a sofa and chairs, a couple of tables and a cabinet. Might as well take it all.’ Aaron indicated a stack of boxes. ‘These came from the Roundhouse too.’ The boxes contained crockery and kitchen equipment, books and ornaments. Then came Alice’s things. Clothes and shoes. Dusty make-up. An outdated laptop and a jumble of pens and paperwork.

Clancy stared at it all. ‘I hadn’t thought about what happened to Alice’s things. I suppose I ought to take them rather than leave them to inconvenience your parents.’

Genevieve came to peer over her shoulder. ‘Where is Alice these days, anyway? Can’t you send them to her? We were quite friendly when she lived here but now I never hear from her at all.’

‘I have an email address. I don’t actually know where she is,’ said Clancy absently, folding the flaps of the box closed again. ‘She moves around a lot.’

Genevieve sounded fascinated. ‘How mysterious she became! Did she really just sneak out while you were on the phone that day?’

‘If you don’t mind taking the boxes, that would be great,’ Aaron interrupted. He was beginning to wish Genevieve hadn’t tagged along on this expedition. He could do without the village rehashing ‘poor Lee being jilted’, especially now Lee was living locally again.

Clancy rose, dusting off the knees of her jeans. ‘Let’s get everything to the Roundhouse and then I can let you two get on with your Sunday.’

Genevieve smiled and patted Aaron’s bum as she passed, as if to emphasise their closeness. ‘I’ll lay a couple of the dust sheets in the bed of the truck. If I know you it’ll be filled with grass and soil.’

Aaron suppressed a snippy remark about the function of the truck being to transport lawn mowers and plants and merely said, ‘Thanks.’

It didn’t take them too long to load up and Genevieve chattered happily to Clancy as they drove down to the Roundhouse, and all through the process of unloading.