When she reappeared minutes later it was with a covered platter of sandwiches and a man in tow, who was carrying a tray. ‘This is Oli, my husband.’ Kaz beamed, which seemed her default expression, the breeze ruffling her brown hair. ‘He talked to Aaron at the village meeting and Aaron mentioned you’d worked for a rural organisation.’

Clancy waited for Oli to put down an appetising-looking bottle of Prosecco and three glasses so they could shake hands, thinking that Aaron seemed to have talked about her quite a lot at the village meeting, what with first Jordy and then Kaz approaching her for information. Probably people were curious about a newcomer to the village and some would have known Alice. She wished that she’d visited Alice when she was living happily in the village with Lee, but Alice had always wanted to come to London and as it meant a longer visit, Alice finding it easier to get away from Roundhouse Row than Clancy did from IsVid, Clancy had agreed. Lee had occasionally come for the day but would leave Alice while he returned – usually with an air of relief – to Nelson’s Bar.

‘So I thought perhaps we could have a chinwag,’ Oli pronounced, pulling the clingfilm off the platter and helping himself to two triangular sandwiches. ‘Has Kaz told you we’re thinking of extending?’ The fizz frothed into the glasses as he poured it, sparkling in the sunshine. ‘At the village meeting Ernie said we need a bigger bar and we’re wondering if we could extend it; whether it would be worth the capital expenditure. We’ve got a modest dining room and the outdoor space in summer, but if we have a bar, the locals would have somewhere to socialise all year round. We don’t want to miss a trick and let a proper pub move into the village.’ Oli’s thin hair kept lifting in the breeze, making him stroke it carefully back into place.

Clancy nodded, enjoying cheese sandwiches with a delicious chutney and gorgeous thick-cut ham with rocket.

‘So when Aaron said who you’d worked for,’ Kaz pronounced excitedly, producing a pad and pen from her pocket as if about to take an order, ‘we thought you might know about funding. Whether there are alternatives to the bank.’ Pen poised, she waited expectantly.

Oli looked at his watch as if hinting that time was pressing. ‘Or grants.’

Evidently Clancy was expected to earn her lunch. She suddenly felt a fraud. ‘It was a rural charity. I didn’t work for it, it was just one of my clients. I only know a little bit and in the broadest terms. I think if you go to their website they’ll have lots of information about projects like village halls but the accent was on communities, the not-for-profit sector. I don’t know what help, if any, there is for commercial enterprise.’

With a frown, Oli took two more sandwiches. ‘But the village can’t afford a village hall. If we extended our bar it could be let out sometimes and be used for meetings and that.’