The happiness that the notion gave me was out of proportion to the casual admission and I thought, how desolate have I really been, and for how long? I smiled at him. ‘Go on.’

‘If Jack won’t come out and you can’t get in, maybe you should move the goalposts. Doing something always feels better than doing nothing, don’t you think? Maybe you should let him know that you’re close and that you won’t ever give up or let him go, however hard he tries to make you?’

I knew he had put his finger on something. Jack was testing me, to see how long and how hard I would hang on. It wouldn’t be the right response to shrug and back off, leaving him at Turnmill Street with Audrey to come to his senses or to grow up or climb down or whatever the well-meaning advice might be. My son was challenging me. The world seemed indifferent to him, his father’s new family was an implicit rejection. Lola was absorbed elsewhere. It was as if he were saying to me, Don’t let me down. However hard I push you, don’t show me what I fear, which is your rejection or your indifference. I was his only anchor and he was using Audrey to pull on my chain. Although probably he didn’t even know it.

‘I think you’re right,’ I said.

‘So let’s go and show Jack we’re with him. We can’t go inside the house in Turnmill Street, but we can take his family to Turnmill Street. Let’s have a picnic in the garden and sit there while the sun shines. Deckchairs, Sunday papers, sandwiches, that sort of thing. We can chat to the neighbours, make friends with the cats.’

‘Isn’t that setting a siege?’

‘Not at all. Just joining in the fun.’

‘What if Audrey calls the police?’ But she wouldn’t do that. She knew she was on tricky ground after our last encounter with the law. ‘And if you’re there, won’t that make Jack more hostile?’ Even though it was Mr Rainbird who had introduced him to ‘The Windhover’.

‘If you sit there alone, Sadie, you’re going to seem – well, lonely and accusatory and maybe even desperate. If we’re together it’s a party. You’re letting Jack know that you’ve got a life of your own that has a huge space in it for him. And that’s the truth, isn’t it?’

I nodded. It was the truth. I wanted Paul to be there and there was also a touch of anarchy to his proposal that appealed to me.

‘Let’s do it.’