Genevieve smiled politely and picked up her cup.

It was Clancy. ‘Harry’s here.’

‘Put him on, please.’ He waited until he heard Harry’s gruff greeting. ‘Hey, Harry, you OK? I hear you’re with Clancy? That’s good. Have you told your parents where you are?’

‘Not yet,’ Harry replied reluctantly.

‘I feel that’s a minimum requirement,’ Aaron said carefully, hoping he sounded sympathetic and like a shoulder to lean on rather than a condescending adult. ‘They could call the police or anything. What about Rory?’ Rory lived with his mother in a small house on The Green, not far from the B&B and where all the shrubs seemed to grow in one direction because of the wind. She was about as opposite to Jordy as it was possible to be, quiet, smiling and very much live-and-let-live.

‘Rory hasn’t told his mum either.’ Harry sounded even more reluctant.

Aaron decided it was up to him to take a stance. ‘OK, here’s the deal. Clancy says you can use her phone to tell your parents that you’re in London. It’s up to you whether you tell them why or where but if she can’t ring back and tell me they at least know that you’re safe, I’ll go round and tell them myself. I can’t leave them worrying.’

‘Shit.’ The line became muffled as Harry conferred with someone, probably Rory. Then he returned. ‘If you talk to Dad, what are you going to tell him?’

Aaron blew out his lips as he considered. ‘That you’re safe and in London with somewhere to stay tonight, and same for Rory’s mum. I won’t say more, partly because it’s your decision but mainly because I think you ought to tell him yourself.’

Silence.

Eventually Harry’s voice again, ungracious and sullen. ‘I’ll ring him. But, Aaron, there’s a gay community down here, like there is most places apart from Nelson’s Bar. We could come to live in London and just never tell Dad we’re gay.’

‘You could try it,’ Aaron agreed sombrely, his heart going out to his young relative for having to face such decisions. ‘You just have to think about how your parents would feel if they found out some other way.’

‘Yeah.’ Harry’s sigh down the line was almost loud enough to make Aaron pull the phone away from his ear. ‘OK, I’ll think about it. Thanks. I’ll ring home now.’

It was when he finally put the phone down that Aaron remembered Genevieve’s presence and tried to recall whether his side of the conversation could have revealed its sensitive nature. But when he turned around, she’d gone. Damn. He’d been rude after all. He couldn’t even kid himself that he’d been focused on the wellbeing of his young relative. The fact was that when he’d heard Clancy’s voice on his answering machine everything else had just fallen away, even the bad mood he’d come home in.

He couldn’t help that he felt something stirring for Clancy, and that all he felt for Genevieve was guilty regret.