‘Eric won’t come; I know that without asking. He’s got too much work on and we need a break from each other.’ Her voice drops to a whisper. ‘I still don’t know if he knows what happened between me and Martin, but if he does he’s not saying. He doesn’t say anything. It’s lonely, like living with a stranger who doesn’t seem to like you very much.’ Then she stops. ‘How tactless of me, Melly, you must be much lonelier.’

‘It’s the opposite for me,’ Melissa replies. ‘I was lonely when I was with Paul. I’m not lonely now and nor is Izzy.’ She hands Eve her wine and they touch glasses. ‘To the future.’

Blake thinks that if they have to be anywhere without Dad this is the best place. There are so many trees, it’s mental. There’s a tennis court; they got some racquets off Amazon, Melly is showing them how to play. He messaged Dad to tell him to come when it’s the university holidays in Zimbabwe, but Mum said he probably won’t because of having to be careful of money; she’s writing a book which is cool but it’s only Dad earning now. If Eric came, he’d go nuts for this garden.

Charley gets woken up by the birds’ singing in the morning and just lies there, trying to believe her luck. There are ponies and sheep in the fields here; everyone is happier except maybe Izzy. Mum is, definitely; maybe because she’s writing so she’s kind of switched on all the time, you can tell. She’s not saying what the story is about yet. Charley doesn’t want to go back to London. They’ve actually talked about moving here and changing schools, though Mum thinks Dad might prefer to stay in London when he’s back, but they’ll cross that bridge when they come to it, apparently.

Poppy is kind of waiting to see what she feels; she likes it mostly because Sorrel looks more as she used to though she hasn’t grown that much; Mum says that’s to be expected and she’ll catch up eventually. She misses Dad and she’s never not thinking about Ash, but she can’t tell Mum. Grace was really helpful, she said it gets better; it’s not that the sadness gets smaller exactly, but that you get stronger so it’s easier to carry. She can just about imagine how that might work.