She’d found nothing in Cambridgeshire but several interesting opportunities in London. One brought in a salary of sixty thousand as a Brand Design Lead for a South East Asian hotel chain. She’d have to be pretty audacious to carry that off but except for working with actual hotels she did have all the qualifications, experience and ‘required skills’ they’d tagged – design, print, exhibition, space, objects, interior. She clicked the heart to shortlist the job and then her phone rang. She picked it up.

Garrick. Lily halted, hand hovering. Then she sipped the glass of water she’d had at her elbow as she worked and answered.

‘Lily.’ Garrick hesitated, as if unsure of his reception.

‘Garrick,’ she responded, holding her breath and not knowing what to expect. Tubb had said that Garrick wanted to talk to her but not why.

‘I want to apologise,’ he said. ‘You took me by surprise but I acted like an arse, walking out like that. It wasn’t a mature reaction and I hear Harry lost his temper. I’m sorry.’

A wash of relief uncurled Lily’s shoulders. ‘I understand it must have been a shock. I’ve already apologised to Tubb for never even wondering whether he’d told you about Marvin and my mother, so I need to say sorry to you too.’ She’d learned enough from her conversation with Tubb that referring to him as ‘our dad’ could provoke an emotional reaction.

Garrick’s voice held none of the guardedness that Tubb’s had. ‘I have to confess to being intrigued. Can you tell me the whole story?’

So Lily did, explaining about having two mothers, Patsie approaching desired motherhood pragmatically and Roma going at it completely half-arsed. ‘Mum’s quirky,’ she admitted. As she unfurled the story she paced about the room, pouring herself a cup of coffee from the jug she’d made at lunchtime, finding Garrick’s interest much easier to deal with than Tubb’s wariness. ‘When I read that obituary and Mum explained who Marvin was it triggered something,’ she admitted. ‘I think it was the finality of learning I’d never meet my father that made me determined to meet my brothers.’

As they talked, the afternoon light dimmed and, through the French doors, Lily saw frost begin to sparkle on the bare rose bushes outside. Something close to happiness grew inside her as the conversation went on, natural and warm. Garrick had reached out to her after all. Her brother, Garrick.

Finally, he turned the subject. ‘I was going to telephone you anyway but this morning I had a long meeting with Los Aebi. He was very impressed with your work on the trade stand, the Christmas market and on the cultural exchange aspect of the project.’

‘That’s good. I certainly enjoyed it.’ The project hadn’t ended well but that wasn’t Los’s fault.