She was relieved when he bade her farewell and astonished, ten days later, when he again appeared unannounced. Henry had said he was going to London to see Matthew and Leona had assumed he would fly back to Paris from there. Instead, she learned, he had afterwards gone to visit friends in Edinburgh.

‘Where don’t you have friends prepared to put up with you and to put you up?’ she asked him. ‘And you’d better be back in Paris before the two lads you promised can stay with you get there.’

They had just eaten dinner together and Henry was watching her stack the dishwasher.

‘If you hadn’t refused to tell me where Frank is staying, I’d be back in Paris now,’ he replied.

‘Without visiting Matthew, no doubt.’

‘You do have a dreadful opinion of me, don’t you?’ he said dryly. ‘Believe it or not, I’d intended visiting Matthew.’

‘But I have things to do this weekend, Henry. We’re not all like you, with endless time to fritter away. Since I told you Frank was away for two weeks, you can’t expect me to entertain you between now and Sunday.’

‘Heaven forbid! On the other hand, you can’t expect me to have refused the lift to Manchester I was offered by a chap I met in Edinburgh. Train fares grow more astronomical by the minute.’

Leona scraped some leavings from a plate to the pedal bin. Frank giving Henry handouts and I can’t afford to have a waste disposal unit fitted to my sink!

‘Anything I can do to help you?’

Yes. Stop popping up in my life to remind me how much I still want you. ‘No, thanks.’

‘Why wouldn’t you let me take you to a restaurant to eat? You didn’t have to cook after your day’s work, which has to be heavier with Frank away and you holding the fort.’

An uncharacteristically thoughtful remark. ‘What do you suppose I do every evening, Henry? Your brother, too. While you’re living your carefree life, Frank and I come home from the law centre, put a meal together between us, discuss the cases we don’t have time to during the day, watch some TV on the odd occasions we don’t bring work home with us, and that’s it.’

‘My carefree life? Well – I suppose that is how it seems to you.’

‘How could it not? You’re still on the rollercoaster you boarded when you were young, aren’t you? With the accompanying thrills that analogy implies. I’m not saying your political activities aren’t sincere—’

‘What exactly are you saying?’ Henry cut in.

Leona put some detergent into the dishwasher, shut the door and pressed the switch.

‘I suppose that you’ve made a mess of your life – though that wasn’t what I started out to say.’