At home, Nico made snacks then Maria accidentally closed herself in the sitting room and howled to be freed. Josie obliged while Nico googled furniture stores. Finding a promising warehouse of Italian furniture between Bettsbrough and Peterborough he took the girls to help him make a selection.

Maria approved his choice – a black metal base, round black shiny surface and four see-through chairs that she declared to be ‘glass’. Josie said, ‘Purple’s better than black.’

Nico answered, faux regretfully. ‘No purple option.’ He suspected the highly contemporary style wouldn’t go with Honeybun’s rustic kitchen but enjoyed buying something to his taste alone, remembering Loren’s penchant for velvet love seats and spindle-back rocking chairs.

The girls behaved well, Maria accepting a queenly perch on his shoulders and tapping his head when she wanted him to look at something, so he took them to a nearby toy shop. Josie got a Christmas card craft set and a PVC tablecloth decorated with long-lashed dragons to protect the new table from glue, Maria a backpack with walking reins attached. Face shining, she chose a unicorn design with a silver horn. Josie grabbed the rein and became a princess with Maria as her pet magic unicorn. ‘Hold on tightly,’ Nico called. All he had to do was stroll behind as the princess and her unicorn trotted along the pavement. Who would have thought a pet magic unicorn moved so much faster than a two-year-old girl?

‘Let’s stop at this shop and buy a box of chocolates for Nan Heather because she’s hurt her arm,’ Nico called.

‘That’s the little old lady from the wedding, isn’t it?’ Josie demanded, slowing her unicorn to look round enquiringly.

‘That’s right. Hannah’s come home from Sweden to look after her.’ How hurt must Nan Heather be for Hannah to take weeks away from her boyfriend and business? Her blank surprise at seeing him yesterday had probably matched his blank surprise at seeing her … swiftly followed by a burst of heat he’d resolutely tamped down.

He drove home with Bastille playing and Maria lustily adding her own backing track of ‘Neh, neh, noo, noo, noo,’ as they purred into the village past a speed camera on which someone had painted a sad face, which Nico took as a warning that the camera was loaded and dangerous. Not remembering the number of Nan Heather’s house in The Cross, he paused at the garage to check with Ratty, whose oil stains stretched from his hands to the first tattoo on his forearm. Then he returned to Honeybun Cottage and put the table together, Maria ‘helping’ by poking her head between him and whatever he was trying to see and posting his spanner beneath the black range cooker so that he needed a coat hanger to hook it out.