‘Shall we take our tea outside?’ suggested Isobel. ‘I can’t bear to waste a moment of this lovely day – you never know when you’re going to get another one up here and you’ve been cooped up in the car all day too.’

They took a couple of cushions and sat together on the front steps, savouring the warmth of the spring sunshine and gossiping companionably while the obese Lozenge lay blissfully on a lower step having her bulging stomach massaged by Louisa’s foot.

‘How are the twins?’ Louisa asked.

‘Very well. Amy’s about to do her AS exams. She’s not sure yet whether to go straight to music college after A levels or read something else at university first and then go back to music later. Edward’s still at his special-needs Camphill School, near Aberdeen. We’ve got difficult decisions about him ahead of us because he can’t stay on in this particular school after he’s eighteen. Technically he’ll be an adult then but he’s still a small boy trapped in a grown-up body.’ Isobel sighed, then added hopefully, ‘But we’ve got over a year before we need cope with that problem, so I’m sure something good will turn up.’

Like all their friends, Louisa knew that any fairy godmothers who might have been present at the christening of the Grants’ twin son and daughter had not divided life’s gifts evenly between them. Bright, talented Amy was clearly fulfilling her early promise as an exceptional violinist, but Edward had always been different and fitted into no special category – he’d proved to be a child of heartbreak and triumph in fairly equal measure and Louisa could well understand that the difficulties, both for himself and for his parents, were unlikely to get any easier with approaching manhood.

‘You’ve just missed them,’ said Isobel. ‘They’re back at school now but you’ll see both of them at the weekend. Amy will be playing in the concert Giles has organised for you all on Saturday night.’ She hesitated for a moment and then added in a slightly constrained voice, ‘But we’re not without a child in the house at the moment, as you’ll no doubt discover. We have my small nephew staying with us.’

‘I didn’t know you had a nephew.’ Louisa was surprised.

‘No? Well I have – my sister Lorna’s little boy. Do you remember Lorna?’

‘I certainly do. She’s not the kind of person you forget! I knew her marriage had bust up but I didn’t know she’d got any children. I thought Mum told me it was one of the reasons for the break-up – that Lorna was desperate for a baby. Last time I was here I think she’d just walked out on that marriage and was about to come back from South Africa and descend on you here.’ Louisa shot Isobel a sympathetic glance. Lorna, by far the more glamorous but much the less attractive of the two sisters, had always been a byword in the family as a troublemaker. ‘You didn’t seem to be looking forward to it much!’