Dr Pilton was not on duty, and the new intern, after a cursory check, agreed to release Constance into Diana’s care. A nurse produced socks for Constance and a warm blanket before she was wheeled out to Diana’s car.

‘It’s cold enough to snow,’ Constance said.

Diana fetched a blanket from the trunk of the car, a bit grassy and sandy from their various picnickings, and draped it over Constance’s knees.

‘David will be at the house,’ Diana said. ‘I may ask him to supper.’

Constance nodded. She was looking around with a curiosity other people reserved for new places. It had alarmed Diana that Constance rarely had the slightest sense of where she was, until Diana realized that Constance had learned to use it as a pleasure as long as she was securely in the car within reach of Diana.

When David came out of the house to greet them, Constance gave him a startled look and said, ‘Who in the world is that?’

‘David, my brother.’

‘Hello, David,’ Constance called cheerfully, and she got out of the car and walked across to the house, unmindful of her nightgown and hospital blanket, unmindful of what she had just been through.

Diana took her up to their room, the bed still unmade, and suggested she have a shower and dress in the clothes laid out for her. While Diana waited, she lifted up the cellophane of the memory board to cancel the steps of a quiet day and wrote ‘Dinner with David’.

‘What happened to the rest of the day?’ Constance asked.

Diana took Constance in her arms, held her close and said softly into her ear, ‘I erased it.’

David was putting the chicken in the oven and the potatoes sat scrubbed on the counter when Diana came into the kitchen.

‘An early dinner, I thought,’ David said. ‘The boys will be over around eight to fix the doors.’

‘I’m going to make Constance and me fruit juice for before dinner. She was sedated.’

‘Could you use something a little stronger right now?’

‘No,’ Diana said, ‘I’m afraid it would do me in.’

‘She seems all right,’ David said.

‘She’s physically very tough,’ Diana said, ‘thank heaven!’

‘You aren’t going to see the boys through a mother’s eyes,’ David said, ‘but they really are quite nice, useful kids.’

Diana laid a hand on his arm. ‘A great-aunt’s eye isn’t apt to be jaundiced. I’m grateful to you, D. You know that.’

Diana was not used to being alone with her brother, and she was only aware of it now because no guard went up in her. They moved around the kitchen quite peacefully together until they took drinks in to join Constance, who sat listening to Glen Gould playing Bach.

‘I could manage so much better if conversations were more like this,’ Constance said.