He didn’t even look round. ‘I’m not coming. I want to stay the night here.’

Audrey’s glance glittered like chips of ice. I kept my dismay at the idea submerged as far as possible. Jack had never stayed with friends overnight, at sleepovers or birthday parties. Apart from the Cherbourg trip, he had always been with me or with Tony.

‘You haven’t got any pjs here, no toothbrush, nothing. You can stay another time.’ I was getting this all wrong, I knew, but I had no idea how to make it right. The feeling of confusion and powerlessness was horrible.

He shook his head violently.

Audrey said to me, ‘I can sort him out some things.’

I glanced up the cobwebbed stairs. It was very likely that there would be a well-aired bedroom up there with clean sheets on the bed and a brand-new toothbrush still in its packaging. ‘I’d rather you came home, Jack.’

‘No,’ he snarled.

This wasn’t just about the fox cub, of course. It was because of Tony’s new baby son, and Lola and Sam, and me and Mr Rainbird. Audrey’s house had become a retreat from all of this and the drama of the cub’s death made him feel even more part of it.

‘Come with me,’ I said. ‘Now.’ I took hold of his hand and tried to draw him away from Audrey but he snatched himself out of my grasp with a strength that surprised me.

‘I. Am. Staying. Here.’

My hands fell to my sides. Audrey had never taken her eyes off me. I could not stand here and do battle with her for possession of my child. I’d have to back down temporarily and do it as gracefully as I could.

Just for one night.

I took a deep breath and smiled. ‘All right. You can stay with Audrey until tomorrow morning. I’ll bring some clean clothes and pick you up in time to go to play scheme.’

Jack rubbed his eyes with his knuckles. Audrey’s full mouth loosened and curved with triumph.

There was much more to this for her than a night’s sleepover. The depth of rivalry between Audrey and me went way back into history, the thick roots twisted in the earth of the past and Ted’s devious doings, and I’d have to dig those roots up somehow and dismember them.

‘He’s twelve. He can make some of his own decisions,’ Audrey said in her superior way.

No he can’t, I thought. I couldn’t, at his age. I was in Ted’s power and in his thrall, and I don’t seem to have escaped even now. His hand reaches out and clutches me and you too, Audrey. But I didn’t say anything. I hitched the strap of my handbag over my shoulder and felt in my pocket for my car keys. ‘Goodnight, Jack,’ I said softly.