After dinner, Harry asked, awkwardly, whether Clancy was able to help them find out about jobs in London and somewhere to live. Though alarmed at this indication that she might not be able to deliver the boys back to their families at the end of the week, Clancy took out her phone and they began searching the internet for London jobs+ accommodation.

The boys began optimistically enough. ‘Look at this,’ exclaimed Harry. ‘Live-in housekeeper job for a music-industry professional spending two months in France. The salary’s loads! Enough for both of us, seeing as we’d get room and board. We could share the job.’

‘Not sure an employer would view it quite like that,’ Clancy put in cautiously.

They dismissed that obstacle but became glum about the requirements for references and experience. Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Harry put together what he thought was a ‘killer’ email applying for the job and received, within the hour, a response saying that their application would be kept on file.

‘Wonder how long before we get a proper answer?’ Harry asked, grinning at Rory.

Clancy felt honour-bound to point out, gently, that ‘application on file’ almost always meant no.

‘Oh.’ Harry looked disappointed for only a minute. ‘But, look, there’s this job at a London club. A turndown attendant.’

‘What’s that?’ Rory and Clancy asked in unison. Clancy was quite glad she didn’t need to drive tonight because she was already on her second glass of wine.

‘Erm, sort of housekeeper,’ Harry decided, reading the job description. ‘Let’s both apply, Rory.’

By the time they’d – optimistically in Clancy’s opinion – applied for a couple of other vacancies that came with accommodation, it was dusk outside and the lads were ready to move on. Clancy offered to stick with them, thinking dubiously that perhaps she should try and find them somewhere they might meet other gay couples of their age, preferably somewhere less lively than Soho, but they were resolute in their refusals.

‘We had another look at the map and we want to walk over the bridge and along the South Bank to see the London Eye,’ said Harry, waving the A to Z.

Rory was a little less cavalier about jettisoning Clancy. ‘Thanks loads for dinner and the beer,’ he said, pulling on Harry’s arm to prevent him from dashing out into the evening with a brief goodbye. ‘You’ve been amazin’, bringing us to London and setting us up at Will’s apartment.’

With only a small sinking feeling of sadness at hearing the place that had been her home for three years and she still half-owned referred to as ‘Will’s apartment’, Clancy gave them each a hug, hanging on to them just long enough to get them to agree to meet her tomorrow evening too.

Then she returned to the tube and onward to her hotel, feeling zero inclination to call up any old friends to say she was in town. Maybe she’d disconnected too thoroughly while she’d been living in a tiny Norfolk village on a headland projecting out to sea.