She brushed aside my offer. “I may be getting on, but I’m not incapable – at least, not yet.”

Lily dumped the plastic washing basket on the sink top, shrugged off her fleece and busied herself with her polka-dot teapot. She cast me a long look over the shoulder of her olive-green jumper. “So why did you get so upset?”

Wow. She didn’t go in for small talk or approach a subject with delicacy.

Harley flopped onto her belly.

“It’s been a bit of a strange time for me,” I admitted after a few moments.

“Milk or sugar?”

“Just milk, thank you.”

She nodded her silver head. Another pause. “So, are you going to tell me then or will you mime it and I have to guess?”

I watched her flit between the teapot and a mug tree. Should I tell her? I didn’t know her. Was I being propelled into stupid mistakes, after my break-up with Miles? Maybe my head was still scrambled after all that.

It was as Lily was fussing over the teapot that I noticed her pause. She set the teapot to one side by the sink. One hand fluttered up to her chest. Her breathing became a little laboured, just like it had before when she spoke to me from her doorway.

“Mrs Cruickshank? Lily? Are you alright?”

I shot up from the kitchen table and moved towards her.

She dropped her hand back down by her side, drawing a steadying breath. “I’m fine, young lady. No need to make a fuss.”

“Are you sure? You’ve gone rather pale.”

Lilly batted her hand in mid-air, like she was swatting an annoying fly. “It’s called old age. I’ll be fine in a minute or two.”

I examined her.

“Stop looking at me as though I’m some old, decrepit museum piece. I might look like one but I don’t bloody feel it most of the time.”

I wasn’t convinced she was all right

She took a couple more breaths. After a few more minutes, the colour returned to her cheeks and she busied herself with the teapot again.

“Are you sure you’re feeling all right now? I could call a doctor…”

Lily rolled her eyes with irritation. “No thank you. I’m fine. So, are you going to tell me why you were getting so upset out there?”

I shook my head. “No. I’m not. Not until you tell me the truth, Mrs Cruickshank. That’s twice now I have seen you look frail.”

I sat back down at her kitchen table. What a stubborn woman she was.

“Well?”

She pulled an irritated face. “That’s blackmail.”

“I know.”

Lily pressed her lips together in a disapproving way. “All right! All right. I was just recently diagnosed with a heart condition, so I have to take things a little easier.”

“I thought as much.”