Ah, and here came Daisy too, talking earnestly to another girl – about mosquito larvae probably, or the lifecycle of a cockroach, judging by the bewildered look on her companion’s face. Robyn felt a pang for her daughter, who always seemed so unaware that other children found her behaviour strange. ‘She is so weird,’ Robyn had once heard a group of girls sniggering to one another, and it had taken all her restraint not to grab them by the throats and tear into them. With her gorgeous red hair and big wonky smile, sensitive Daisy was desperate for a best friend, but found herself excluded from cliques and party invitations with painful frequency. ‘Hello, darling,’ said Robyn, as Daisy, engrossed in conversation, appeared on the verge of walking right past her.

‘Oh!’ Daisy blinked in surprise and then beamed. ‘Mum, did you know that a ladybird might eat five thousand insects in its lifetime? Five THOUSAND, Mum!’

‘Wow!’ Robyn cried, hugging her and Sam, then delved in her bag to find some cheesy crackers, which they fell upon like starving hyenas. Across the playground she noticed that Beth was gazing at her again, with that same strange look in her eyes. Robyn turned away hurriedly, but not before she realized what lay beneath the woman’s expression.

Pity, that was it. Beth Broadwood was gazing at her in pity.

Bunny had felt bad for leaving Dave on Monday evening when he still seemed so dumbfounded with shock about his parents, but she’d had the Willowdene meeting booked for two months, and the lady organizing it had phoned three times in the last week with parking information and a checklist of Bunny’s requirements. A microphone? A PowerPoint display? Snacks? ‘Or shouldn’t I ask?’ she’d tittered conspiratorially. No, it would be impossible to back out now.

‘Go round and keep your dad company,’ she instructed her boyfriend as she grabbed her car keys, then fluffed up her hair in the hall mirror. ‘Take him for a pint and a game of darts, distract him with your best small talk. Better still, why not see if he wants to stay with us for a few days? It can’t be very nice for him, being stuck at home on his own.’

‘Good idea. What would I do without you?’ Dave said gratefully as she kissed him goodbye.

‘You’d probably still be lying in the road with your bike wheels spinning,’ she said, as she always did to that question.