‘Me too,’ I admitted. ‘And I’m sorry we’ve spent our time arguing over this.’

‘So am I,’ he agreed. ‘I do appreciate that you have a lot to think about ahead of this move, Hattie, but please try to stick to the important stuff.’

Now they were back in my head, my parents were the important stuff, but I didn’t want to fire him up again.

‘I will,’ I promised. ‘Sorry,’ I said again.

‘And I’m sorry too,’

‘What are you sorry for?’

‘Accusing Dolly of interfering in things,’ he tutted. ‘I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions.’

That made me feel even worse.

‘But I do love you, Hattie,’ he went on. ‘I love you more than anything and I just want our lives here to be perfect. I’m trying to make this transition as smooth as possible but it’s hard bloody work.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘I know. And I hate the fact that there’s nothing I can do. I feel so helpless.’

‘There’ll be plenty for you to do when you get here,’ he told me. ‘Don’t worry about that. I’ll be expecting you to keep me in ironed shirts, remember?’

‘Yes,’ I laughed, thinking back to our conversation about his own mother. ‘I remember.’

‘Now,’ he said, ‘I really must go. I’ll send you the photos when I can and I’ll call again soon, OK?’

‘OK.’

‘Love you.’

‘I love you too.’

As I walked back to the school, I tried to banish the unexpected excitement which had started to build around the prospect of getting back in touch with my parents. Talking to Jonathan had been a timely reminder that he had been the poor soul charged with delivering their poisonous message. Perhaps sending the card wasn’t such an inspired idea after all?

*

While the staff were finishing up for the day, I familiarised myself with the relevant updated school policies and then, after further deliberation, it was decided that I would be best placed in the year two class where the teaching assistant, Mrs Newton, now spent quite a lot of her time looking after the new child Mr Matthews had mentioned who had diabetes.

The class teacher, who I hadn’t met before, was called Mr Patterson and he was thrilled to have an extra person to help out, especially as there was a lot left to do in preparation for the school fair which was happening at the end of the week. In fact, I soon discovered, there was everything left to do.