There was an uncomfortable tension as Caitlin swiftly bent to pick up her son and carry him out of the room. Ash hurried after them with an apologetic grin.

‘I wasn’t badgering him,’ Devan said grumpily. ‘Was I?’ He looked at Connie, suddenly bewildered.

‘A bit. You could see he was getting upset.’

He sighed. ‘I didn’t mean to.’

Connie went over and put her arms round him. For a moment they embraced in silence. She felt his body almost limp against hers, as if the life had gone out of him. Pulling back, she looked into his face and saw tears in his eyes.

‘I don’t know … I just can’t seem to get anything right these days.’

She wanted to say that was ridiculous, but it wasn’t. She wanted to reiterate that he should get help, but she knew it would be pointless. She had a strong urge to shake him and make him wake up to what was going on, but she knew that was cruel and would be completely unhelpful. So she just hugged him again, until she heard her daughter talking to Ash in the hall.

Connie pushed Bash in the buggy as they made their way down the high street in the direction of the sub-post office and the Wells road, where they would turn right and come back into the village on a loop. It was a cool, breezy day, the spring sun briefly warm on their faces as it emerged from behind the scudding clouds. Ash strolled ahead, hands in his jacket pockets, seemingly deep in thought.

‘Dad’s in a right old state,’ Caitlin said.

‘Oh … I thought he’d been OK over the weekend.’

‘Really, Mum?’ Caitlin glanced at her, eyes wide.

‘Well, yes. Until the pen incident … and he didn’t mean to get at Bash.’

‘Mum! He looks dreadful,’ her daughter said, clearly shocked at Connie’s blindness. ‘Sort of defeated, don’t you think? And unnecessarily snippy all the time.’

She sighed. ‘Maybe I’m just used to it.’

‘Can’t you talk to that new doctor Dad was carping on about?’

Connie snorted. ‘And get us both killed?’

They turned the corner, Ash now a long way ahead.

‘So what are you going to do?’

She shrugged, mildly irritated that her daughter thought she could wave a magic wand and make Devan happy again. ‘I’ve suggested a million things he might enjoy. Things that keep him in the medical loop, where he can use his substantial know-how. All of which he’s aware of himself, of course. But I irritate him enough as it is, just by asking him, for instance, to take Riley for a walk or have the occasional shower.’

They walked on in silence. Connie greeted someone she knew, who was raking old leaves from the flowerbed near his fence as they passed. Riley barked at their snuffling old pug, which gave a half-hearted woof in response.