Clancy beamed with pleasure for them as she tried to edge onto a roundabout, looking forward to the end of the A406 so she could take the M11 north. ‘Wow. That’s amazing. I’m thrilled you had such a positive experience.’ But she felt a twinge of guilt too. ‘I should have thought of youth workers. I’m afraid I’ve been caught up in sorting myself out. Well done you.’

Silence.

She glanced into her mirror again. Both boys’ eyes were closed, Harry’s mouth open and Rory’s cheek pressed to the top of Harry’s head.

She smiled, settling down behind the wheel. In less than three hours she would be in the Roundhouse. The responsibility she’d assumed for the slightly whiffy teenagers behind her would be over. She could stop worrying if whatever she did was the right thing.

She turned up the radio as Harry began to snore and headed to a tiny village on a bar of land between Holme-next-the-Sea and Titchwell.

They were on the A10 coming up to King’s Lynn before either of the recumbent teenagers stirred.

It was Harry, always the most vocal, who suddenly demanded, ‘Clancy, can you stop? I need a piss so bad.’

Rory whimpered at such a rude awakening, then mumbled in a small voice, ‘I might have to puke.’

‘Hang on to both,’ Clancy urged. ‘I’ll pull off.’ After a couple of minutes’ tense silence and fidgeting from the back seat, a lay-by hove into view and she made a dive for it, grateful that at least lads were more equipped than girls for relieving bodily fluids behind a hedge.

The lads scrambled out, slamming the car doors and wafting in heated, fume-laden air. Clancy stretched comfortably, deciding not to leave the climate-controlled comfort of her car. Noisy vehicles roared past only feet away, masking any unfortunate sound effects. Then her phone began to ring and she pressed the button on the steering wheel to reply via the car’s system.

‘Hi. How’s everything?’ Aaron’s voice filled the air around her. It made the hair on her neck stand up. After a slight hesitation he added, ‘Are you still coming home today?’

A smile tugged at her lips at him calling Nelson’s Bar ‘home’. ‘We’re south of King’s Lynn,’ she replied. ‘A lot will depend on traffic from here but I should be back in plenty of time for the Parish Meeting. The boys needed a comfort stop.’ She told him about the drunken state of them this morning.

‘At least they’re with you. That’s a relief.’ Again a hesitation, as if he wasn’t sure how to go on.

She decided the lads were a safe topic. ‘I’ve been wondering what’ll happen when I get them back to the village— Oh, heads up, they’re about to get in the car and you’re on speaker.’

‘Got it,’ Aaron replied easily. More slamming of doors, Harry grumbling about feeling crap, Rory leaning back and closing his eyes with a groan. A laugh in his voice, Aaron came over the speaker: ‘What kind of state are you two in?’