‘So you’re not lying in bed with your leg in traction, then?’ said Thea lightly, with no knowledge of where that idea had sprung from.

‘What? No, of course I’m not. What’s Stephanie been telling you?’ His laugh was so forced, she could feel the effort down the line.

‘She didn’t tell me anything. I’m joking, you idiot. I could have said you were at the end of the garden, burying my dog.’ Her heart stopped. ‘You weren’t, were you? She’s okay, isn’t she?’244

‘She’s absolutely fine.’ He sighed. ‘Don’t have any more fanciful ideas, okay? Once you start, I’ll never be able to stop you. Tell me about your day. Has Gladwin been to see you? Have you used the car?’

‘I drove to Bibury this afternoon. I was going to do a drawing, but I couldn’t get anywhere near the picturesque part. It was heaving with tourists, most of them Chinese, as everybody said it would be. Some of them look as if they’ve actually settled there permanently, but mostly they just hop off coaches to take photos and then whizz off somewhere else.’

‘So no picture to show me?’

‘Not yet. But I have done a tiny bit more of my needlepoint picture. And Barkley came this morning, quite early. She didn’t have anything new to say, really. Gladwin’s still totally embroiled in this illegal animal trade. Sounds as if they’re tightening the net, with raids and so forth. Did you see any of it on the telly? I’ve only caught bits on the radio.’

‘No. We haven’t had the telly on all week.’

‘Congratulations.’ How many weary parents could claim the same at this stage of the summer holidays? Certainly, never a one in Thea’s time. But it was different now, she remembered. ‘I suppose they’ve been on their gadgets instead,’ she accused.

‘They have a bit. As a reward when they’ve been good, mostly. And when they’ve got a bit noisy. There hasn’t been too much of that.’ Stephanie and Timmy were not especially noisy children anyway – something Thea felt grateful for. There was less of the mindless rampaging 245that she remembered from her two sisters’ children in years gone by.

She found herself lost for something to say. Desperately she racked her brain for a joke that wouldn’t annoy him, an anecdote that wouldn’t worry him, a promise that wouldn’t be broken. She couldn’t mention Clovis, and rather hoped to stay off any detailed references to murder. ‘They’ve just about finished the kitchen here,’ she said at last. ‘Up to the bathroom tomorrow. They’re wonderfully fast workers.’

‘It’s all modular these days, I suppose,’ he said vaguely. ‘Just slot it all together like Lego.’

‘Must be,’ she agreed, thinking that would surely not be possible in the case of a new bathroom. Tabitha was having new facilities installed – bath, shower, lavatory and washbasin – but all except the shower in much the same positions as the old ones. The shower was being fitted into a space in a corner, and would obviously require considerable new pipework as a result. ‘So everything’s all right with you, then, is it?’