‘You did. Have some more pie.’ She had boiled sliced potatoes and made them into a pie with tinned tomatoes, fried onions, eggs and milk, and covered it all with grated cheese.

‘I will. I wouldn’t have got anything half as nice down at the pub.’

‘You’re very flattering. Shall I make some tea?’

‘Or a drop more of the “crater”?’

Thea was willing to bet he meant whiskey. ‘I’d rather have tea. I am quite tired.’

‘Tea it is, then. And don’t worry about the washing up. Susan will do it in the morning.’

Thea was dead on her feet but she resolved to get up early and sort out the kitchen. She had a feeling that her lodgers didn’t bother about clearing up their late-night snacks because they said, ‘Thea will do it in the morning.’ How were they managing now, she wondered? Tomorrow, if she felt like it, she would ring them and tell them where she was. But only if she felt like it.

Rory and Thea said good night amicably, with just enough teasing flirtation on Rory’s part to make it clear how he felt about Thea. Thea went to bed half wishing she were the sort of girl who could just jump under his goose feather duvet and let Rory seduce her. But as much as she would have liked to, she couldn’t, somehow. Although, after a couple of nights at this temperature, she might well feel she wanted to snuggle up to someone.

She fumbled in her washbag for her toothbrush, imagining Petal’s horrified surprise if she found out what was going on – Thea with a toyboy, and such a good-looking one. Thea had overheard Petal discussing her recent dumping of her nice-but-dull man friend with one of her mates. ‘I know he wasn’t much,’ she had said. ‘But who else would she get at her age?’

‘Thirty-five is the perfect age for girls,’ Thea whispered to herself smugly, as she snuggled down for the night. ‘So there, Petal!’

Wee Susan, from down the road, found the house surprisingly tidy when she appeared the next morning at about eleven. She was not overly delighted to see Thea, however, and not, Thea deduced, because the washing up had been done. Susan had a crush on Rory the size of Croagh Patrick.

Rory gave Susan a friendly, easy smile, which confirmed he was not an over-exacting employer. ‘Hello, Susan. Thea’s come to stay for a bit. She’s in the front bedroom, if you’d care to give it a bit of a once-over. Come on, Thea,’ said Rory, who was not an early riser. ‘I’ll show you the studio while Susan gets on with the cleaning. You’d better borrow a coat.’