‘I’ll put the kettle on,’ Mrs Lawrence said. She went through to the kitchen, grateful to be busy, and Alison stood for a while, marooned in the sparkling living room, with its plumped-up cushions and smell of Pledge. She longed to crawl unnoticed up to Daniel’s room and change into one of his T-shirts, curl up in his bed, make a nest of his sheets; there’d be comfort in that. She could wait for him there, wait until it grew dark and late, and Daniel came home, and he’d get into bed with her so she could explain everything to him. But then, she thought, could she? After all, he was entirely protected from the shameful reality of her life; she’d been so scrupulous in her efforts to keep her world separate from his, to hide the chaos. How could she now lay all that on him: all the messy, miserable, private details of her life; all the turbulence of Catherine, Martin, Peter – oh God, Peter. She closed her eyes, but when she did that she could see him, terrified, staring at her from the edge of death, so she opened them again, and there was Mr Lawrence, Daniel’s dad, looking round the door at her, his gentle face creased with anxious sympathy.

Marion had fetched him, nipping out to the pigeon loft to tell him Alison was here, she was upset, and he was better with her than she was, he had more patience. Mr Lawrence had come gladly, and now he stepped into the room, and Alison began to cry again, she couldn’t seem to halt the tears, but he said nothing, nothing at all, just held her until she quietened, and then he said, ‘I’ve a new pair of birds, just settling in, come and see.’ He spoke perfectly normally, as if there was not even a sniff of crisis, and he took her hand and led her through the house, out of the back door and down the garden. He sat her down on the bench in the loft and let her be while he did all the talking. The new pigeons were Flash Pied Emperors, he said, a breeding pair, strong birds, both from a fine lineage of race winners. Alison, passive, worn down by events, listened to him and was soothed.