‘I can’t tell you what to do, Tom. And don’t let anyone else try to tell you, either. Do what feels right to you. Hopefully, you have a long lifetime ahead of you. Choose carefully what you do with it, who you spend it with.’

He smiled at her, feeling comforted by their chat, inconclusive as it had been. ‘Go and have the rest you deserve now, Jane. And thank you for listening. It helped a lot.’

She got up and came across to kiss his cheek. ‘You’re a good lad.’

The warmth left by her lips seemed to linger for a while. His mother wasn’t one for casual kissing and cuddling, but he’d seen Jane hug the kids, kiss them, laugh with them. Andi did it too. Kids needed to be shown they were loved. His two were always coming to touch him and cuddle up to him. He loved that.

Gail found out there was a security system round this house by accidentally tripping a sensor and switching on an outside light. She threw herself behind a tall clump of flowers and lay very still. She saw someone come to a window and peer out, so mewed like a cat. She’d always been good at that and grinned as the person went away from the window. Lying looking up at the darkening sky, she purred softly to herself.

When the moon rose, she prowled round the garden, keeping away from the house itself. To her disappointment the walls round the side of Jez Winter’s house had broken glass all along the tops just like the front ones, and the gate between the two houses might look old-fashioned but it had a fancy modern electronic lock on the wall beside it, lit up so you could see which buttons to press.

The only hope she could see of getting into the next garden was by climbing the big tree that overhung the wall, but she wasn’t sure she could manage that. And it’d be hard to do it in the dark, far too risky. Anyway, it had started to rain now, just a gentle misting rain, but it’d make the tree slippery.

She was starting to get damp and didn’t want to catch her death of cold by spending the night in soaking clothes, so looked round for shelter. Surely there must be a garden shed in a posh place like this?

When she found a summer house, it seemed a sign that fate was on her side. She went to shelter inside with a sigh of relief just as the rain began to pound down heavily on the roof. She only wondered if the place was security wired after she’d gone inside.

She stood near the door for ages, waiting to see if anyone came out of the house, ready to run away if they did. But no one appeared. In the end she lay down on one of the garden loungers stored there, because she was feeling tired.