‘When I first moved to Bradfield, I had a horrible little bedsit down by the canal. That was the quickest way to get there in the rush-hour traffic.’

‘I never knew that.’

‘My feminine mystique. I have to keep you on your toes somehow.’

They drove in silence for a couple of minutes. Paula was dreading what lay ahead. Breaking the worst possible news was something she’d done more times than she cared to remember; it never got any easier. As if she read her mind, Elinor said, ‘No matter how many times I give people bad news, I still feel inadequate to the task.’

‘I’ve never had to tell someone I know.’ Paula turned in at the school gates.

‘Sometimes I’ve grown to know a patient quite well. At least you have a sense then of how to approach it. Take Torin. Like you, he’s already expecting the worst. There’s no leading up to it gently. Direct but kind is the best way for him, I’d say.’

Not for the first time, Paula thought her partner was Blessing by name and a blessing by nature. She’d cut straight to the heart of what was troubling Paula and she’d resolved it. If only the inconvenient issue of Tony’s DNA could be so readily settled.

The news barely caused a ripple with the head teacher, a man who clearly believed that emotional crises needed practical responses. Paula warmed to him straight away. He installed them in a cosy room with soft armchairs and a low table. ‘Our main guidance suite,’ he explained. ‘I’ll send someone for Torin’s form teacher and have her bring him here. What about tea, coffee?’

‘Just water. And a box of tissues if possible,’ Elinor said, matching brisk with brisk. His secretary swiftly brought what they’d asked for and left them to wait. It felt like a long time, but it was only minutes before the door opened and a large-bosomed woman in her forties ushered Torin into the room.

One look at the pair of them and his face crumpled. All his efforts at toughing out Bev’s absence crumbled away, leaving him lost. ‘She’s dead, isn’t she?’ It was a roar of anguish. His knees couldn’t hold him and he crouched low on the floor leaning into the side of a chair, his arms over his head, racking sobs tearing through him.

Elinor was first to his side, kneeling on the floor next to him, pulling him close and folding her arms round him. She didn’t speak. She just held him and let the wave of grief suck him under and drag him with it.