There was a short pause. Molly possibly thought this was good news but was just tactful enough not to say so. ‘Mm. Well, you must admit your house could do with a bit of a going over.’

Thea fumed, silently but passionately. This might be the moment when she fell out permanently with her friend. But somehow she held back. ‘I have been busy. And what will they expect? With a litter of puppies in it? They’re not called “litters” for nothing, you know.’

‘But the puppies don’t go into the bedrooms, do they?’

Thea wasted several minutes jumping up and down in fury. Trust Molly to put her in a situation of having to clean her house when she wanted just to dash up to London to save the gallery. She decided she’d clean for an hour and anything that wasn’t cleaned in that time could just stay dirty.

She set the kitchen timer and swooped and swiped and banged the hoover about, stuffed things under cushions and flung bedspreads and tablecloths over piles of boxes. The timer eventually pinged just as she’d blocked up the hoover, trying to vacuum up a sock. ‘Oh, well,’ she said, switching off the offending appliance and kicking it into the cupboard under the stairs, ‘if they need to use it, they’ll have to sort it out first.’

Her packing was necessarily speedy, while she longed to be one of those women who just threw the Armani section of their capsule wardrobe into their Louis Vuitton weekend case and leapt on to the train. Although rushed, Thea had plenty of time to regret the clothes she’d given away before she’d left London. Those black jersey trousers, for instance, which gave her freedom of movement and relative smartness.

Deciding Petal could be useful, if absent, Thea went into her room and raided the carrier bag full of discarded clothes. There was a pair of trainers in there which might be the very thing. Comfortable feet were definitely essential if she was going to spend the next few days tramping round art galleries. And Petal’s trainers, unlike Thea’s, had the advantage of never having been used for anything more sweaty and energetic than retail therapy, which Petal did with great concentration and not much speed. The trainers were the only thing of Petal’s that Thea could fit into.

When she’d dealt with her packing as well as she could, she dithered over whether she should bring the file of material for the graduate show. It would be great to discuss it with Magenta, who had a good eye and a better idea of what was current, or ‘hot’.

But it was of Ben she thought, as she flattened her carefully ironed clothes with the folder. What would he think of that video?