‘Er, no.’ Anna felt disorientated. Krishna appeared too, charming her as if nothing had happened.

‘Jake stayed for a while. He’s only just gone.’

‘Lovely boy, isn’t he?’ Olivia gushed. She went round the chairs, plumping cushions. ‘And he’s been such a good friend to Krish. It was such a shame he and his wife couldn’t seem to get on – so many broken relationships about nowadays. There’s a sadness about Jake, I always feel. Misses his little girl terribly.’

She tidied the music on the piano. ‘Have the boys got back here yet?’

‘Yes. Theo’s off home tonight.’

Krish looked stricken. ‘I’d forgotten! I’ll just go up – ’ He headed for the door.

‘Yes, do go, and tell him not to leave without saying goodbye,’ Olivia called.

When they were alone, Olivia said, ‘I’m afraid you gave me a terrible shock earlier.’ She looked across at Anna, an odd, closed expression in her eyes. ‘What happened to her?’

‘Cancer. She wasn’t well for quite a while. I wasn’t keeping it from you. I thought you would have known.’

‘Darling – ’ Olivia swept over to her and took her in her arms. ‘You weren’t to know what a hermit I’ve been. I’m so out of touch with things. And at least we’ve found each other now, which is a great, great joy to me.’ She held Anna’s shoulders. ‘We’ll have a lovely evening together, the three of us – you, me and Krishna. It’ll be perfect.’

By some signal, presumably from Olivia, the three of them were left alone all evening, with no interruptions from the lodgers. Theo had said his goodbyes and gone earlier. Krish clearly didn’t want him to leave.

They shared a simple meal of bread and cheese, salad and pickles. Olivia sat between the two of them at the table looking beautiful and was at her most charming, but Anna now found it impossible to relax in her company. She caught herself observing, questioning, tuning in to undercurrents beneath what Olivia was trying to present to her. She moved her chair away slightly from where Olivia had arranged it close by her side and watched the spectacle of what almost amounted to a courtship between mother and son.

‘I’d so like you to think of me as family now,’ Olivia said after they had eaten, talking mainly of practical things, Anna’s teaching, Krish’s course at college. ‘I always so wanted a big family, growing up alone.’ She leaned over to touch Krish’s hand, as she had already done a number of times during the evening. He smiled back at her, his expression affectionate, adoring almost. At the start of the evening Anna had felt reluctant admiration for him, that he could cope with this woman and remain so loyal to her. But she was growing more exasperated with the pair of them, frustrated by what she saw as falseness.

‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a big sister like Anna?’ Olivia went on.

‘Oh, it would,’ Krish said, with slightly too much enthusiasm. He gave Anna a dazzling smile, and she managed to bare her teeth at him fairly convincingly in return. ‘The thing is, though, you’ve never told me about Anna before. Or Kate. I mean, we’re not actually related are we?’