Choosing not to argue the point, though the swollen red claw peeping from Lily’s sling didn’t make Isaac feel charitable towards Zinnia, Isaac listened while Lily explained her decision not to tell Tubb of their shared DNA, about affairs hurting people even when long in the past. How Tubb’s aged aunt, in the forgetfulness of age, had talked to him about his dad Marvin’s affair as if he knew about it.

Her face creased in a faint smile. ‘He was having a right mantrum about this unknown woman sleeping with a married family man. He’d tried to discover when the affair had taken place and it had been mixed up in his aunt’s mind with the invasion of the Falkland Islands so he looked it up and that was 1982, Garrick would have been sixteen and Tubb twenty-one. I was born in 1983,’ she added in a small voice. ‘Marvin had confided in Tubb’s Aunt Bonnie that the “other woman” had been the love of his life, which made Tubb feel hurt and diminished on his mum’s behalf. It made him angry and disappointed with his dad at a time when he should have been mourning him. The conflicting feelings really got to Tubb.’

Lily paused and reached for her coffee cup. Isaac passed it to her, making sure it was steady in her hand before he let go. After she’d drunk several mouthfuls, she went on. ‘Tubb presumed the woman to have been a similar age to his dad at the time – early fifties. He said he was devoutly thankful that they’d been too old to make babies or he’d have horrible half-siblings crawling out of the woodwork.’ Her eyelids fluttered closed. ‘There’s no real downside to leaving things as they are. I like him and I still want to meet Garrick.’

Heart clenching, Isaac helped her put her cup down and lifted the fingers of her good hand to his lips. ‘Hard on you though.’

She nodded fretfully. ‘Maybe you can see why I have to find someone to drive. But it’s the early hours of Sunday now and we’re supposed to leave on Monday at nine a.m.’

Wordlessly, Isaac stroked the side of her face. ‘Zinnia owes you,’ he said carefully.

Her eyes flashed open. ‘Apart from her work and the state of her house after the fire, I don’t think now is the time to spend nine days cooped up with her, four of them in a minibus. Mum, apart from being in pieces over Patsie, has to go on a photographic assignment to Scotland and Patsie is scheduled to be in court.’ She gave him a rueful smile. ‘It’s been revolving in my head all the way home from hospital.’