‘Rory got under my skin – it’s as simple as that. I started by being dutiful in a rather martyred, self-righteous way and I gave Giles a hard time. I’m not proud of myself. Then I started to love Rory for himself – really love him. It just sort of happened, and of course that changed things . . . and then something else happened this weekend which altered everything.’ Isobel told Evelyn about Amy’s reaction. ‘We had no idea she knew, though I suppose we might have guessed. Children always pick up more than anyone thinks when grown-ups try to hide something from them and Amy and her music were very involved with Lorna’s power struggles that summer. But it wasn’t only that. She couldn’t bear the idea of us sending Rory back to Lorna either – and that opens up a new set of possibilities.’

‘You want to adopt him? Is that it? Even if Lorna agreed, could you really cope with that?’

‘I don’t know about adopt . . . we hadn’t got that far. But yes, we’d like us to get joint custody and try to give him the security he so badly needs, a normal life. Of course we wouldn’t want to cut him off from Lorna completely . . . well I might want it,’ she amended, honestly, ‘but I think that would be wrong. I’d like him to be based with us and I hope I could manage my feelings about Giles and Lorna better now. I think our marriage is stronger than it was when Lorna had a go at wrecking it five years ago. Giles promises me he doesn’t feel a thing for Lorna and it gave us both a terrible fright: shook our priorities up – perhaps we even needed that fright; perhaps we’d got a bit complaisant – but I believe we could do this together now. Louisa said something interesting to me the other day: she pointed out that even though Rory isn’t my child, he still has most of the same genes that my children have, has just as much of Pa and Mum in him as they do. I found that a very helpful new way of looking at things – but even so I wouldn’t be contemplating this if he hadn’t climbed inside my heart.’ Isobel spoke jerkily but with great intensity and Evelyn had no doubt that she meant what she said. All the same, she thought there could be many pitfalls ahead, and she trembled for the whole family.