Suddenly Mary shook herself free of him and ran into the house. David stood, watching her go, hoping this, like all of her angers, would play itself out rather than harden, as Patricia’s had, into unrelenting judgment. Sighing, he crouched down again to go on with the sorting of the iris corms. Alone, he took the liberty of slipping a few of the prize ones into his pocket as a gift to Constance.

‘Hello!’ David called to Constance where she stood with a garden fork in her hand.

It was the first time he had tried dropping in without a specific appointment, and the mistrust in Constance’s eyes made him regret it.

‘I’ve only brought you some iris corms from my garden,’ David said, holding them out to her.

She backed away from him as if he might be an intruding stranger, and only then David realised that for her he was.

‘Constance,’ he said gently, ‘I’m David, Diana’s twin brother.’

He stood as still as he would for a nervous dog while Constance looked him over.

‘I’ve never seen you before in my life,’ she decided and turned firmly away from him to go on with her digging.

‘I was here just three nights ago for dinner,’ he tried to remind her. ‘We talked about these iris, and I told you I’d bring some over.’

Constance lifted her fork out of the soil and held it in front of her, a ridiculously small creature for such fierceness. ‘Get off this property!’

‘Constance!’ It was Diana calling from the back door. ‘It’s David, my brother.’

Constance lowered her weapon.

‘I have no way of knowing,’ she said to David, ‘unless I’m told.’

He wanted to say, ‘But I did tell you.’ How could he teach her to trust him if she was never able to know who he was except with Diana’s confirmation?

After they had found a place for the iris and set them out, David left Constance to complete her garden assignments and went to speak to his sister.

‘It isn’t a good idea,’ Diana said, ‘to drop in like that without warning.’

‘Do you think she’ll ever recognize me?’

‘Probably not,’ Diana said, dismissively.

‘Isn’t there anything I can do?’

‘Oh, David, just accept it.’

‘But I’d like her to be able to trust me,’ he persisted.

‘If she really did remember who you are, that might be more difficult.’

‘As it is for you,’ David said.

‘I need time to get used to you,’ Diana said. ‘I can’t be bullied into it.’

‘Am I making a nuisance of myself?’

‘Not yet,’ Diana said and gave him a reluctantly friendly smile.

‘You’ll have to set the limits. I don’t have any.’

‘Of course you do,’ Diana said. ‘You just don’t know what they are until you’ve stumbled into them.’