‘It’s only Lego club, Mum. I can still get all my homework done, and I did super-well in my spellings, didn’t I?’

‘Nine out of ten,’ Luke says, in an American accent, and offers him a high-five, and Lizzie has been beaten again.

‘Okay. Lego club it is.’

Lenny dives in for a quick, hard hug, which she holds for a beat too long.

‘Terrific,’ Luke says, and bends down to give Maud three long strokes from ear to tail, and Maud, being Maud, lowers herself to the ground, rolls over with her legs akimbo and grins at him, overbite on display. ‘Oh, yes. One thing before you go,’ Luke says, standing back up, with something in his voice that makes Lizzie think he’s prepared his next sentence. ‘We’re supposed to be going on a school walk up to the Beacon next week. The kids are going to be looking for nests and plants. They might do some scrub-bashing, too. The thing is, we really need some parent volunteers. Can I put your name down?’

‘Please come along, Mum,’ Lenny says. ‘We’re allowed to bring money for an ice-cream!’

Lizzie wants to say no. She wants to grab Lenny and run away, away from Maud and Tess and Luke and this village. But she can’t. And if she doesn’t start doing something other than cleaning all day, Tess will keep pushing her, keep appearing with cups of tea and inedible rock cakes and that you-can-talk-to-me face, which hides a will of granite. The school trip is a good idea: Lenny spending time with a man and not going on about his dad is a good thing. Shut up, Lizzie, she says, to the bell that tolls quietly in her head. ‘What time?’

‘Ace! It’s ten a.m. on Thursday. We’ll meet here, at the school. That’s great, awesome. Thanks so much.’ Luke produces a form from nowhere and a pen from behind his ear and Lizzie takes a long time carefully signing her name.

Lenny grabs her hand on the way home. His is sweaty and slightly sticky. He swings it high in the air, and Lizzie remembers when she and Greg used to walk like this, Lenny in the middle, them like bookends on either side, swinging him together. Making him say, ‘Wheee!’

She remembers before Lenny was born, when Greg used to hold her hand on Sunday walks and say, ‘One day, we’ll be doing this with our children.’ Lizzie had been scared at the time. Greg had been so sure of her, and their future. Right from the day they met.

Tess is delighted when Lizzie announces she’s helping with the school trip. It’s as if Lizzie has declared she’s off to sort out the peace talks in the Middle East single-handedly.