Amidst the cheering and clapping I was thinking that evenings like this were the best reward. They made sense of all the work that had to be done in an ordinary day and for life’s routine that occasionally seemed too tedious to endure.

And then there came tonight, when everything shimmered with happiness and a sense of rightness.

The faces went all blurred and I blinked.

Ted was here again, standing close beside me, not in his Spencer Tracy youthful glory but shrunk and hunched over as he had been in old age, with his hands blotched and veined like Lois Archer’s. He would have loved this party. ‘Well, Princess.’ He chuckled. ‘Not so bad, is it?’

I was reminded of the afternoon of Ted’s funeral when his neighbours and the cousins from Manchester had also spontaneously clapped and cheered, out of affection for his memory. The circle was closing. Ragged ends met and began to knit together again.

An arm slid round me. The touch made me jump and then I saw that in the noisy aftermath of the toast Paul had left his seat. His breath warmed my neck.

Jasper was standing up now. He cleared his throat and looked solemn, and then couldn’t maintain the solemnity. He was too happy to be serious.

‘Get on with it,’ Graham called. ‘I want my cake.’

Jasper thanked Caz and me for the dinner. Then he turned to Mel. A glance passed between them and at the same time a little arrowhead of anxiety pressed in my throat. ‘I want to propose another toast. To the woman I am more proud of than anything else in my life.’

Oh, be careful, I thought. The dart’s pressure was actually painful now. The room seemed to have stopped its collective breathing.

‘To my daughter, Clare.’

Relief made me almost gasp. We clapped again and echoed her name, and Clare’s flush darkened. She scrambled out of her chair, hesitated as if she didn’t know which way to go, then crossed to Mel and briefly laid her cheek against Mel’s hair. She was doing the right thing because this was what was expected of her and she expected it of herself too, but there was reluctance as well as compliance showing in the stiff angles of her head and limbs. Mel tried to draw her closer, even though the movement was physically painful, but Clare evaded her and circled round to her father instead. He sheltered her in the crook of his arm, as if she were Cassie’s age, and she nestled triumphantly up against him.

It wasn’t all a fairy tale. Even for Jasper and Mel there was some rough water ahead.