But this evening I needed to focus on Joan, not my growing yearning for Sam’s company. Besides, I’d promised I’d call Leanne to let her know that Joan was okay, and I didn’t think I could rustle up a convincing lie while Sam was sitting watching me. I also saw the creases of fatigue at the corners of his eyes, and I remembered how he’d told me that being there for his old girlfriend Carrie had become a pressure he couldn’t carry. I suspected that the only company Sam wanted that night was his dogs.

I’d asked Pia not to bother sending a meal around, but once we’d let an exhausted (and definitely more attentive, since his day with Yasmin the Dog Mother) Nesbit into the back garden, I found a basket on my outside table, brimming with glistening blackberries.

‘Don’t eat all of them!’ I laughed at Joan’s purple lips and fingers when I brought out plates of cheese on toast for supper. ‘We’re going to make the rest into a pie tomorrow. We can take your mum a slice.’

Once she’d had a brief call with Leanne, dodging questions and chattering about nothing to avoid any more lying than necessary, Joan could barely drag herself up the stairs to bed. After checking a few minutes later that she was asleep, feeling more than a twinge of envy that I couldn’t do the same just yet, I tiptoed downstairs and phoned Carole, who immediately called Peter and switched to speakerphone.

We didn’t talk for long. I was torn between wanting to answer their torrent of questions while maintaining as much of Leanne’s confidentiality as I could. I briefly summed up her prognosis again, providing no details on how she ended up with hepatitis C or a severely damaged liver. I explained how and why Joan had ended up living with me, and Joan’s worries about what would happen longer term. When they asked how long I was able to keep taking care of her, the answer that had been incubating inside slipped out strong and sure: as long as she needs me. Finding Leanne’s parents hadn’t changed that. Instead, I felt a sharp tug of worry that maybe they would want to take her home to Chester. If it came to that, of course I wouldn’t fight it, but she’d take a chunk of my heart with her.

I wasn’t surprised to hear that they had already booked a hotel for the following night. We agreed to meet in the hospital in the morning. Carole wanted to just appear at her bedside, so that Leanne didn’t have the opportunity to refuse to see them, but Peter persuaded her otherwise.

‘She’s our daughter, my love. No matter what went on before, she knows we always loved her; she’s no reason not to see us.’