‘No, they won’t.’

‘How do you know?’

‘I don’t know, but I do believe. I think you’re the best, the most exciting artist I’ve seen for a long time. And so does Ben,’ she added quickly, before he could remember that she had probably seen very little new art lately. ‘He thinks you’re very special, special enough to make it worth me mortgaging my house to finance the gallery.’

‘What do you mean? Jesus, you never did that, surely?’

Thea didn’t want to deceive Rory and she had nothing but a faint instinct that anything was wrong, but she felt she must stress her conviction that his work was worth enormous sacrifices and that she was making them. The fact that she hadn’t actually mortgaged her house was only a technical matter. ‘He thinks your work is worth me giving up my life for, so I can create a space worthy of it. And I can tell you that his opinion is very highly respected in the art world.’

Rory was looking a little uncomfortable, although that could have been the hard kitchen chair he was sitting on. ‘You’re a wonderful woman and I’m truly grateful for everything you’ve done for me.’

To Thea, this sounded like she was being written off, but she produced a suitably modest smile. ‘You’re the artist.’

He nodded. ‘You wouldn’t have those slides you took about you, would you?’

Thea shook her head, secretly gleeful. ‘I’m awfully sorry, Molly’s sent them away to have postcards made. It takes ages, you see.’ The lies tripped off her tongue like broken beads – they were only half-lies, anyway. They were going to have some postcards done and they probably did take ages. In fact, she’d better put it on her ‘to do’ list.

‘Oh. That’s a bit of a blow.’

‘Why? So you could show your work to your aunties? You should have asked me, I could have got you another set done.’

‘How long would that take?’

Thea shrugged. ‘Hard to say. How long will you be in London?’

‘I was planning on staying a month.’

‘A month? That’s not that much less than you gave me to set up my gallery from scratch. It’s too long for a holiday, Rory. You can stay a fortnight, at the most, or’ – she scooped up a sleeping bundle of black and white fluff – ‘the puppy gets it.’

He laughed. ‘You’re a hard woman, Thea. Did I ever tell you that?’

Lara lay in front of the Rayburn, taking up almost the entire width of the kitchen. She stared resignedly under the sink, her puppies sucking away happily. The little one was still far smaller than the others, but he sucked strongly now and seemed to move about just as much as the others did.