‘But she’s at least sixty. And isn’t she married to that nice man who works for Amnesty International?’

‘He’s her pimp. It’s all a front. You can’t hear what I can hear; the walls are that thin.’

‘Goodness. This street has always struck me as rather respectable.’

‘Oh, Prudence, get real.’ She sighed. ‘You’re a lovely person. I’ve always liked you. I hope you don’t mind me speaking my mind but that’s just the way I am.’ She drained her glass of wine. ‘I’m so glad we’ve become friends, after all these years. Isn’t it odd how you can see somebody every day and just say hello and never know a thing about them? We’re funny that way, aren’t we, us British? Stiff upper lip and all that.’ She got to her feet. ‘But I’m a Yorkshire lass and, to be honest, it’s not my style.’

She led me into the dining room.

‘Better late than never, anyway,’ she said. ‘Now we’ve broken the ice, and we’re both on our tod, it’s so nice to know we’re there for each other, don’t you agree? And you must tell me where you got that skirt …’

The next day I felt trapped in my own home. If I stepped into the street I knew that Pam was waiting. But I needed to go to the shops. The only solution was to escape through the back alley.

This was easier said than done. There was a door at the bottom of the garden but I hadn’t used it since Greg left, fourteen months earlier. It was now engulfed with brambles. The rusty bolt was trapped by ivy, which had climbed up the door and stuck to the hinges. Even in winter there was a Sleeping Beauty air to this door—indeed to the whole neglected garden, which I’d hardly set foot in for months. The lawnmower was rusting in the shed. It had last been used by Evan, poor bereaved Evan, who hopefully had stopped wearing his wife’s knickers and found a new love. Men recovered so much faster than women, especially if they were of a cheerful disposition and had a flourishing vets’ practice. Those quiches were a promising sign that he wouldn’t be alone for long.

I wrenched open the door and stepped into the alley. It was bordered on both sides by the back walls of neighbouring gardens. When the children were small we used to collect blackberries there; it was our secret place.