Tubb rubbed his hand over his head. His hair had thinned a lot more recently. ‘I apologise for the way I spoke to you. Maybe intolerance is a symptom of heart failure.’ He didn’t smile so Lily didn’t either. ‘Sorry also that this call has been so long in coming.’ It was as if he was reading from a list he’d prepared. ‘The new baby, Ainsley, has been causing a bit of concern. Ona’s still in hospital with him and Max and Janice have been taken up with hospital visiting while I’ve tried to fill in the childcare gaps.’

‘How are Ona and Ainsley now?’ Lily asked.

‘Improving and hoping to be home in the next couple of days.’ Tubb’s expression lightened.

Now she was over the momentary shock – and flare of hope – stemming from his call, Lily felt she could take the initiative. ‘I’m sorry about the way I told Garrick. I feel stupid that it had never occurred to me that you hadn’t told your brother about your dad’s affair.’ And then, deliberately, because anger had decided to join the gang of emotions roiling around her belly: ‘Our dad, I mean.’

On-screen Tubb nodded slowly. ‘It seems as if not telling your brothers something is a family trait.’

Lily’s cheeks scalded.

Tubb went on before she could think of a reply. ‘You probably realised from Eleanor’s reaction to stumbling over a completely innocent scene between you and Garrick that he had a thing with a younger woman that almost ended his marriage. It was more than a year ago but her reaction showed she’s by no means worked through her feelings.’

Lily just nodded. Garrick cheating on his wife wasn’t her fault and she hadn’t known it had happened.

‘So,’ Tubb went on, picking up a pencil to twiddle between his fingers. ‘I’ve talked things over with Garrick – the awful balls we made of things with you. I apologise that my anger with Marvin—’ he got around the ‘Dad’ thing neatly ‘—was misdirected at you. My concern was for Garrick’s feelings.’

A spark of hope ignited in Lily’s heart. But Tubb’s next words made it clear that he was apologising for the way he delivered the message rather than for the message itself. ‘I haven’t yet got past the fact that you’ve been deceiving me for the last couple of years,’ he went on. ‘And that I could have easily met your mother without being aware that she was the woman who recklessly put at risk my family’s happiness.’

Again, Lily said nothing. He hadn’t met Roma because Lily and Roma had been keen he shouldn’t.