Danny still didn’t look convinced, but obviously decided not to voice his disbelief just in case his grandfather was actually telling the truth. The three of them ate in companionable silence as the sun began to rise to reveal a clear and untroubled sky. The storm had passed, but it was already hot and there was still no promise of rain.

Becky had eaten her fill and was sipping tea when the front screen door clattered and Gwyneth stomped into the room, followed by Wally. ‘Happy birthday, Danny,’ she said cheerfully as she plonked herself down in the chair beside him and hooked her walking stick over the edge of the table. ‘How does it feel to be ten?’

He grinned back at her, trying to hide the disappointment that neither she nor his grandparents had brought him a present. ‘I dunno,’ he replied. ‘I haven’t been ten for very long yet, and it might take some getting used to.’ Smearing away the milk moustache with his arm, he slid from his chair to make a fuss of Wally, who was snuffling about under the table in search of crumbs.

‘I suppose,’ she said with a twinkle in her eyes, ‘that as you’ve finished your breakfast, you might like to see the surprise me and your grandparents have got for you.’

His doleful expression brightened immediately. ‘Too right,’ he breathed. ‘What is it?’

‘Well, that would rather spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?’ she said drily. ‘Why don’t you go over to my place and look on the back veranda?’

He shot out of the kitchen, clattering the screen door behind him, his bare feet thudding down the steps.

‘It’s good to see he’s cheerful today,’ said Gwyneth as she accepted a cup of tea. ‘I hope that now he’s ten he’ll forget all this nonsense over Adam and get on with things.’

‘He’s unlikely to just forget his father overnight,’ protested Becky.

‘He never will if you keep talking about him and letting him go through that box,’ she retorted. ‘It’s been almost three years, Becky, and time to put the box away and look to the future. There’s no good to be had in living in the past, and Ben Freeman isn’t going to hang about forever while you dither.’

‘There’s nothing between me and Ben,’ she said firmly, in answer to her parents’ questioning looks.

Gwyneth snorted. ‘And there never will be unless you stir your stumps and do something about it, instead of pandering to that boy’s obsession.’

‘Mum,’ Hugh protested softly. ‘Don’t start – not today.’

She glared at him. ‘I speak as I find, Hugh. Always have and always will.’