‘A few days,’ she agreed, unable to care too much about Renée’s feelings. What would happen if the lads declined to return to Nelson’s Bar with Clancy on Friday was a worry for another day.

She was beginning to feel exhausted by the upheavals in her life, but Harry and Rory hadn’t yet returned with her phone. Clancy passed the time telling Will a little about Nelson’s Bar, finding herself nostalgic for its peace and quiet.

He looked bemused. ‘Sounds lovely,’ he said, in a voice that suggested it sounded anything but.

Finally, the lads reappeared, Harry looking so red-faced and mutinous that Clancy’s, ‘Did you speak to your family OK?’ was barely necessary.

Harry nodded once and moved close to Rory. ‘We just said we wanted a bit of time in London, hanging out. Dad ranted. I said I thought he wanted me to see more of life and we’ve never been to London. He said why sneak off, if that’s all it was. But we didn’t sneak. We just … took an opportunity.’

Rory, too, was unsmiling. ‘Mum’s not proper pleased that I took off without telling her, either.’

Clancy made sympathetic noises, not wanting to say anything that might appear to put her on the side of the parents. The only way she could think of to deal with the situation was to maintain friendly relations with the teenagers and keep in touch over the next couple of days. On the cusp of adulthood, if they just vanished into the streets of London she could do little to stop them. However, it would cause untold upset to their families if they did, so she said brightly, ‘People get upset when they’re worried. They know you’re safe, that’s the main thing.’

Then she explained what she’d arranged with Will regarding their accommodation.

‘Won’t you be there?’ Harry asked, looking unsure.

‘Well, as Will’s my ex, that would be bizarre,’ she said frankly. ‘I’ve got Rory’s number and you’ve got mine. How about I ring you tomorrow? We can meet up for a bite to eat after my meetings. Will you be OK during the day?’

The lads shrugged and said yes so she waved them off in the company of Will, who was wearing a long-suffering expression.

At her hotel, Clancy kept telling herself Harry and Rory were adults, that she’d come to live in the UK on her own at their age and that they were not in any way her responsibility. None of these things stopped her worrying whether she should have tried to switch hotels to one where she could get two rooms, and hang the expense.

In the morning, after a fitful night’s sleep, she was on the phone to Rory by nine o’clock. ‘I’ve just realised we could meet up this morning. My meeting’s this afternoon.’

‘It’s OK.’ Rory sounded young and excited. ‘Will’s given us an A to Z of London ’cos my phone can’t run a map app and we’re nearly at the tube station. He’s going to show us how the underground system works. We want to go to Covent Garden and see the buskers.’