A familiar voice said, ‘Hello, Tara, it’s Dad. Is this a good time to talk?’

The fluttery feeling returned. Tara glanced at the old clock that loomed over the tea urn, for reassurance. ‘Um, it depends what you want to talk about. I’m at work. I’ve got a client at half past.’

Was her hand shaking? Her knees felt wobbly. All the effort of sounding unbothered was going into her voice. She was glad her dad couldn’t see her. The hot-water urn was reflecting a red shape where her face was.

‘OK, well, I’ll make it quick. I just wanted to say thank you for your email and to apologize again. I can see now how unfair it was. I really am sorry if you felt ambushed. That’s the last thing I meant to do. The very last thing.’

Tara had half expected the apology – Mum had always said Dad did a good apology – but she hadn’t expected it to sound so contrite.

‘You’re right, I should have called ahead,’ he went on. Tara noted, in a distant, rational corner of her brain, that he didn’t take the easy route of blaming Toby for not tipping her off. ‘But it was really good to see you and I appreciated the cup of tea.’ He paused. ‘And what you said in your email about your mum – that she was loved and happy. I’m glad. Glad to know that too.’

Again, the emotion in his voice took Tara by surprise. This wasn’t the Dad she’d been expecting. The selfish bastard who did what he liked, never bothering with an actual apology when an expensive bunch of flowers would do the job. Tara’s mouth had gone dry. Weirdly, now she felt bad for upbraiding him.

Which is exactly how he gets away with it, sighed her mother’s voice in the back of her mind. Or was it her own counselling training?

‘Tara? Are you still there?’

‘Yes. Yes, I’m here. I’m just …’ Just what? She didn’t know.

‘Another thing – I’ve been thinking about these floods, and I was wondering if there was anything I could do? I mean, with this community action group you’re involved with? I can put you in touch with a grant hunter, for a start – Jake’s brilliant at tracking down funding and charities and whatnot, to get projects up and running. And if you needed someone to have a look at that village hall that was affected – Troutbridge, wasn’t it? – we could send someone to assess the structural damage.’