‘Tell me about them,’ Diana said and watched her niece grow certain of the gifts she had to offer, given encouragement and detail by Jack and David, who teased her, too, about her exaggerated sense of Ben’s new maturity, of Mike’s sensitivity. What all agreed on was the close friendship between the boys.

‘They’ve just never been rivals.’

‘Diana nearly killed me once,’ David said.

‘Yes, I did,’ Diana agreed, but more seriously.

‘Why?’ Laura asked, shocked.

‘He didn’t like girls,’ Diana said, and some amusement came back into her voice.

‘She was a foot taller than I was, and I was supposed to be superior.’

Jack laughed. ‘No wonder you’re such a superior fellow. We all should have had twin sisters to knock some sense into us early.’

‘Have you a sister, Jack?’

‘Yes, but so much older than I that I never really knew her well. I have a brother nearer my age, but we’ve never had much in common except when we’re on opposite sides of the same argument. I envy my boys sometimes, but I don’t suppose their sort of closeness is common, and it’s partly a matter of luck.’

‘Are you close to your sister, Laura?’ Diana asked.

‘Oh yes,’ Laura answered quickly, but she coloured and added, ‘but we sometimes don’t get along all that well.’

‘I call her Mount St Mary,’ Jack confessed. ‘When she’s not erupting, she greatly improves the view.’

‘A temper like mine, has she?’

‘But she’s never learned to control it,’ David said.

‘Then it can’t be as bad as mine, or she’d be in jail,’ Diana concluded.

‘Do you think such things are inherited?’ Jack asked.

‘The tendencies are in the gene pool certainly,’ Diana said, ‘but that’s far larger than we easily imagine. It’s mostly vanity or guilt that makes us see ourselves in the next generation.’

‘Mary had a temper from day one,’ David said.

‘They do,’ Diana nodded. ‘Without it they wouldn’t survive.’

‘You must have seen such a lot of them,’ Laura said.

Diana nodded, but she turned to Jack. ‘Now tell me, how hard is it to make wine as good as this?’

When Jack realized it was a serious question, he offered to take her to Wine Art and set her up with the basic equipment.

‘Could you do that without me?’ Diana asked. ‘I don’t leave Constance alone if I can help it.’

‘Maybe I could come and be with Constance,’ Laura suggested.

‘Or I?’ David offered.

‘Now the other thing I wanted to ask you,’ Diana said, ignoring the offers, ‘is why so little is being done to get rid of toxic waste.’