‘Anyway, it’s only going round to some old friend of Grandad’s. It’s no major deal, is it? There’s a whole lot worse things I could be doing.’

‘I know that. I just wish you didn’t have to tell me you’re somewhere when in fact you’re somewhere quite different.’

He held his head up now. ‘Yeah. Well, I knew you wouldn’t want me going there. I’m not sure why and it doesn’t really bother me all that much. And you didn’t have to go and find out, did you?’

He was right, in part. Jack was intelligent and I felt a distinct surge of admiration for my son’s reasoning. It was Audrey who was the problem.

I cooked supper and we sat at opposite ends of the table to eat it. Jack read a bird book and I frowned at the Evening Standard. There was a lot of coverage of pending tube and bus strikes. When he had cleared the table and put our plates and cutlery in the dishwasher, Jack said he was going to bed. He gave me an awkward kiss but when I tried to catch him in a hug he stepped out of my reach.

I waited until I was sure he was safely in his room, then dialled Audrey’s number.

The abrupt way she said ‘Yes?’ was becoming familiar.

‘I want to talk to you about Jack.’

‘Is that so?’

I had tried to make my voice sound neutral, but hers was spiky with hostility.

‘I know that he was at your house today, Audrey. I think he’s been visiting you quite a lot lately, hasn’t he? And I wanted to try and work out, with your help I hope, why he feels that he has to lie to me about it. He’s been telling me he goes to an ornithology club at his school.’

‘How much working out does that require?’

‘Why my son lies to me?’

‘Why he prefers you to think he’s elsewhere, rather than at my house.’

I took a breath to keep my voice steady. ‘Perhaps you could tell me why you let Jack spend his afternoons with you under false pretences? I might not have made any objection, yet you both assume that I would, and you cut me out right from the beginning. I don’t think it’s correct for you to establish a relationship with him that’s based on a falsehood. I don’t …’

‘Why does what’s correct matter so much to you?’

‘Because I’m his mother. It’s my responsibility to teach him to tell the truth. I try to give him the right guidelines.’