‘Why was Mrs Catto reluctant?’ Cassins asks. ‘What reason did she give?’

I think about it for a moment, and a sigh escapes me, a hot breath of despair. I bring my eyes up to meet hers, my shoulders rising and falling in a tired shrug.

‘Intuition,’ I say.

23

Corinne was different now.

At the airport, when the frosted glass gates opened and she emerged, weighed down by her bulging courier bag and dragging a wheelie case behind her, Abi experienced a twinge of sudden alarm. Inwardly, she had prepared herself for the grief the girl would be carrying, but it shocked her to see Corinne looking so small, dwarfed by her luggage. All traces of bubble-gum pink in her hair were gone, replaced by a sober brown, cut short into a straight line that skimmed her jaw. She seemed less defined, as if her outlines had become blurred, her colours faded. The animation which had so enlivened her features had evaporated, leaving her deflated, smaller somehow. She bore herself carefully, with an unnatural calm.

Abi and Eva hung back while Beth laid claim to her friend, gathering her up in an enfolding hug that went on for a long time until eventually Eva murmured: ‘Jesus, enough already,’ and Abi stepped forward to put a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

‘Thank you for your kindness,’ Corinne told her after they had embraced.

‘No need to thank me. We’re glad you’re here.’

Corinne nodded, her face a blank. ‘I am very grateful,’ she said in her new flat voice.

This formality felt strained to Abi – unnatural. Behind the veneer, she sensed a gathering storm of grief. She exchanged a glance with Eva, who looked unimpressed. Abi noticed how she made no effort to embrace the girl, and when Corinne expressed surprise that she had come to the airport with the others, Eva replied in a tight voice: ‘Yeah, well, I’m only here to practise my driving,’ then turned to lead them back to the car.

Abi had reassured her eldest daughter that Corinne would probably not be with them for long. But her ticket was open-ended and as Abi lifted the wheelie-case into the back of the Cherokee, she remembered the paucity of belongings when Corinne had first come to stay, and now began to doubt the reassurance she had given.

They drove in silence, Eva at the wheel with Abi beside her, the two other girls in the backseat. Corinne’s gaze was fixed on the passing landscape beyond the window and her body language suggested an unwillingness to be drawn into any conversation. It was as if a shell had hardened around her. A carapace of brittle politeness. It made Abi wary and she was already having second thoughts.

Their decision to take Corinne in had not been easily reached. Mark had pushed for it while Abi had been reticent.