When Aaron finally got back to Nelson’s Bar that night, it was as the passenger in the front of a breakdown vehicle, his truck having expired suddenly on him on the way back from completing the work for Mrs Edge. He’d waited more than two hours for the tow vehicle to take his truck to the garage at Brancaster and then deliver him home.

The Roundhouse had been all in darkness as they passed, otherwise he would have asked the breakdown mechanic to drop him there.

He thanked the driver and went indoors, surprised to see Lee downstairs watching TV, looking dragged down and exhausted.

Cautiously, Aaron said, ‘You OK?’

Lee’s smile was pained. ‘I saw Alice.’

‘Oh?’ Aaron said, as if he didn’t know.

Lee shrugged. ‘We’ve been talking a bit recently. I’ve been trying to understand all the passion I had for her, I suppose, but tonight I finally admitted to myself that she’s not the woman I remember being in love with. I don’t mean the way she’s wearing her hair or the hippy-dippy clothes. She’s just …’ He shrugged and shook his head as if searching for words. ‘She’s got no depth. No conception of what other people feel. My rose-tinted glasses must have been pretty powerful if she was always like that. She asked if we could try again but I said it wouldn’t work.’

Relief made Aaron’s knees go funny. ‘That must have been tough,’ he said, thinking of all the years that Lee had wasted pining for Alice, sunk into depression and anxiety.

‘Yep.’ Lee turned back to the TV. ‘At least it’s made me feel ready to move on with my life. I’ll start looking for somewhere for Daisy and me to live in Hunstanton soon.’

‘That’s great.’ As Lee seemed to have said all he was going to, Aaron went to check his answering machine. One hang-up and when he checked, it had come from the Roundhouse’s number. His heart lurched but there was nothing he could do at this time of night, so he went to bed.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Saturday. Again. Changeover day sure came around quickly.

Clancy would rather have taken a walk along the cliffs to calm her fizzing thoughts. She tried to ring Aaron, but frustratingly, got the busy signal. As she stood there glaring at the handset, the front door of the Roundhouse opened and someone walked in.

‘Alice!’ Clancy gasped, her call, for the moment, forgotten.

Alice stood just inside the door, her many plaits swaying around her tattooed shoulders and the straps of a floaty summer dress. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said gravely. ‘I’ve come to make amends.’

Clancy stood still. It would be too, too easy to just accept whatever olive branch Alice held out, to forgive and forget. To carry on exactly as before. Although a lot of her ire had subsided, she still felt as if Alice had punched her in the face. In fact, she thought she’d rather have received a punch in the face than a stab in the back. ‘How?’