Thea decided to risk losing Molly’s good opinion of her by producing her hidden wine. As Petal probably had the only decent corkscrew in her room, she had to prise the cork out with one that hurt her fingers. ‘It’s terribly generous of you, Molly, but I can’t possibly accept. Have some of this. It’s only a “bogoff” but really quite OK if you warm it up a bit first.’

‘Bogoff?’ Molly looked at her glass as if it contained very nasty medicine.

‘You know, buy one, get one free.’

Molly was a member of a wine club and this notion appalled her, but she didn’t comment. ‘Of course you can come to France,’ she said decisively. She picked up her glass, thought better of it and put it down again. ‘Really, Derek can afford it and he’s right, you deserve a break for looking after Petal.’ She looked up at the ceiling. The sound of banging and crashing indicated that Petal’s artwork was nearing the front door. ‘Can you get away at such short notice?’

Suddenly the thought of exchanging her lodgers and her boring part-time job for Provence in the spring was terribly attractive. And even if Molly was bossy and overbearing, she was fun.

Thea took a large sip of her wine and decided that Molly was right: it wasn’t very nice. The wine in Provence was bound to be better. Then she pulled up a chair and threw her cloth into the sink. ‘We’re not particularly busy at the moment and I don’t get holiday pay or anything. I don’t think it would be a problem.’

‘Super! You’ll need comfortable shoes, an umbrella and a sunhat.’

Just then, Petal opened the kitchen door and shouted through it, ‘Ben said thank you for the tea and sorry he can’t say goodbye, but he’s loading the car. And Aunt Molly, he’ll give you a ring as he hasn’t time to call in now. ‘Bye!’ The kitchen door closed and then opened again. ‘By the way, Thea, there are some clothes of mine in the tumble-dryer. If you could be an angel and hang them up for me?’ Assuming that Thea would be an angel, Petal removed herself.

Thea regarded Molly. ‘A sunhat?’ The cold spring rain was lashing against the window and the tumble-dryer was full of Petal’s clothes. ‘I’d love to come, Molly.’