She decided to ring Molly back before she got into the bath. She was likely to be just as disappointed as Thea was and depressing news was better delivered when dressed.

Molly was satisfyingly annoyed. ‘After all our plans. And all those dreary buildings! What a waste! And I got so filthy.’

‘It’s supposed to be good news. We want Rory’s work shown in a London gallery, don’t we?’

Molly made a satisfyingly dismissive noise. ‘Quite frankly, I don’t care where Rory’s work is shown, or even if it moulders in his shed for ever. I wanted to open an art gallery!’ There was a tiny pause. ‘Help you open one, I mean.’

Thea sighed. ‘I did, too. But we have to be happy for Rory.’

‘I suppose so. Damn! I was looking forward to being a working woman again.’

‘Well, I must go and have a bath now before the lodgers start coming home and I can’t get near the bathroom.’ Thea put the phone down decisively, pleased that her brush with great art and her subsequent plans for it, though brief, had made her able to end phone calls without resort to a candle and a smoke alarm.

When the phone rang again, just as Thea had lowered her body into a bath that was the perfect temperature, was doused with some very expensive bath oil left over from Christmas, just as a really interesting programme came on Radio Four, she was very tempted to leave it. But it rang again, just after the answerphone kicked in, which might have meant it was urgent.

It was Ben. ‘Bloody Rory! He says he won’t wait a year.’

‘So it’s back to plan A, then.’ Thea tried hard to keep the growing smile out of her voice. Even naked and dripping she felt inordinately pleased.

‘Yes! He’d rather go with you or send the paintings to New York. He says he’s not going give the Cork Street crowd a chance, after they snubbed him last time.’

‘Good for him! I knew he was a nice boy.’

Ben’s disparaging grunt was even better than Molly’s. It must be a family characteristic – an ability to be dismissive without resort to words. ‘You, trying to open a gallery with no experience, is a completely hair-brained scheme, if I may say so.’

‘Say what you like. Words are free.’

‘And how he can turn down the opportunity of a lifetime just because …’ He took a deep, possibly calming breath. ‘I’ll be down on Wednesday. About eleven? I’m seeing the client at half past eight, so I should be finished by then.’

‘Oh.’ Thea felt confused. ‘I thought you were coming down to tell me about the gallery in London. Which I know about now and it’s all off anyway. So why are you coming?’