Genevieve paused, her wine poised just short of her lips. ‘Was working together still tenable? After?’

Clancy sighed. ‘We tried. Will managed OK, but I … didn’t. It became obvious one of us had to leave and it seemed as if everyone wanted it to be me.’

‘But that’s not fair!’ Genevieve exclaimed.

The warmth of sisterly solidarity stole over Clancy. ‘Agreed. And I could question the legality, if I wanted to.’ It had crossed her mind often, sitting alone in the Roundhouse and feeling betrayed. ‘But, anyway. Roundhouse Row needed a new caretaker, and filling the position got me out of two unpleasant situations in one go. Now I’m in Nelson’s Bar, while Will moves his new girlfriend into our apartment.’ She chose not to admit that Will was mainly moving Renée in because of the financial knot Clancy had tied him up in, which had pretty much bound him to the apartment, at least for now.

Genevieve’s eyes had been getting bigger and bigger. ‘I can see you’re Alice’s cousin.’

‘Really?’ Clancy turned to look at the other woman. ‘So you knew her well?’

‘We were friendly enough to go out for a drink together, until she … Well, neither of you are frightened of making big changes to your lives, are you? Your relationship ends and you just move on.’

Clancy polished off a couple of gulps of wine thinking there had been no ‘just’ about her moving on. ‘A woman doesn’t have to be defined by the love of a man, or the loss of a man. I do regret that I closed my eyes to warning signs, never challenged Will on why he was spending so much time elsewhere. I was complacent, which put my fate in his hands and set me up for a nasty fall. But I deserve better and I’m getting used to being single.’ She held aloft her wine to invite Genevieve to clink glasses.

Genevieve obliged. ‘Until you meet someone new?’ she queried with a grin.

Clancy batted the idea away. ‘I’m in no hurry for that, believe me.’

Chapter Six

It had been good to get a full day’s work in, Aaron thought, as he drove into the village late on Tuesday afternoon. He’d just about finished planting out the terraces in Titchwell. A heatwave was predicted and he was already anticipating customers not watering their gardens and then blaming him for dead plants and lawns with gaping cracks.

He was due to pick his mum up to collect Aunt Norma from King’s Lynn hospital and wanted to be at the ward at seven when it opened. Then he was meeting Genevieve later.

A quick stop at home to shower and grab a sandwich, then he set out again for De Silva House. Yvonne was uncharacteristically quiet when she climbed into his truck.

On the journey, through Hunstanton and on to King’s Lynn, Aaron tried to get the conversation going but his mother replied only absently, even to his enquiries about Daisy. He settled for concentrating on the traffic and listening to Capital FM.