‘No. Caroline is trying hard to take her father’s place. She won’t be coming with me. I just wanted to tell you myself. I didn’t want to bump into you in Bronwyn’s shop without you knowing I was back.’

‘Thanks.’ Maddy swallowed. She wanted to ask him so many things, but there wasn’t any point. Not now. Not ever. ‘I’ll tell Charlie, shall I?’

‘I already have,’ Drew said tersely. ‘Although he seems to be managing very well without me.’

‘Mad!’ Charlie’s voice echoed from the kitchen. ‘Hurry up! Drew knows what jockeys are like – quick to rouse and even quicker to pleasure! I’m sure he wouldn’t want you to miss it!’

Maddy screwed her eyes tight shut. Drew sounded as though he had dropped the phone. His voice was distant. ‘I may see you later in the week, then. Goodbye.’

‘I hope I didn’t say the wrong thing.’ Charlie grinned over the rim of his mug as she walked back into the kitchen. ‘Still, Drew has a sense of humour. Great news, huh? Hey, Mad, are you crying?’

They met outside the Cat and Fiddle four days later. Maddy, on her way home from cleaning at Diana and Gareth’s, had propped her bicycle against the wall of the public bar, and removing her trainers, had hobbled across the road to the stream.

The sun scorched and spiralled above her head and the cold, brown water bubbling between her toes was, as Suzy would have said, orgasmic. Padding back through the dust, her eyes on the ground to ward off stray bottle caps and broken glass, she didn’t notice the solitary figure sitting beneath the brewery parasol.

‘Is this your contribution to water conservation? Bathing in the stream?’ Drew’s voice sliced through the pulsing midday heat. ‘Very laudable.’

‘Jesus!’ She stumbled over her trainers. ‘Where did you spring from?’

‘My fridge seems devoid of anything cold to drink. In fact it seems full of very little. I came for a gallon of anything. I settled for lager.’ His voice was as icy as the stream.

They gazed at each other. He looked older and thinner. There were dark shadows of sadness beneath his eyes, and hard lines on either side of his mouth. Maddy knew she looked much the same.

She finished lacing her trainers and blew damp wisps of hair away from her glistening cheeks. ‘I’ve been cleaning Peapods. While you’ve been away. Only once a week because it doesn’t need very much. It’s just dust, really.’

‘Fascinating. I love hearing about your business.’

‘Bastard.’ She knew she was blushing. ‘I just thought you’d like to know. At least I haven’t been taking money under false pretences.’ She grabbed angrily at her bicycle.

Drew stood up. ‘And what’s that supposed to mean?’