Lily glowered at me. “Since when did you qualify as a doctor?”

Now it was my turn to pull a face at her. “What I mean is, I knew there was something wrong.”

“There isn’t anything wrong as such,” she insisted, glugging some milk into a dinky milk jug. “I’ve just got to not rush around, that’s all.”

She eyed me. “My young lady doctor is nice enough, but she’s overreacting. They don’t know everything.”

My lips twitched.

“And I don’t want my personal business being spread around Silver Ness, thank you very much. I’ve told you in confidence. Well, you literally forced it out of me,”

I tried not to smile. “You have my word that I won’t tell anyone.”

“Good.”

I glanced around, admiring a vase of pretty white lilies on her kitchen windowsill. “How do you manage here on your own?”

“Perfectly well, thank you,” she clipped. “They’ll have to carry me out of here feet first. I’m not going anywhere.” A softer look settled across her face for a few seconds. “This is my home. I belong right here. I always have done.” Then she whipped her attention back to me, her tone more officious again.

“Right, young lady, I’ve confided in you about my minor health issue, so what about you?”

Minor? I thought. I was going to debate the point with her, but decided not to. I probably wouldn’t win anyway. I sighed. “Where do you want me to start?”

“At the beginning is always best.”

And so, before I could make a decision about what to tell her – or indeed how much to tell her – my concerns poured out of me in a torrent and I couldn’t find the barrier. “The newspaper I’ve been working on for the past two years is being amalgamated and I’ve been made redundant. I’ve got another job in journalism, but it’s on this intimidating magazine and I’ve been made the beauty writer, which is not what I wanted to do.”

I paused, drawing a ragged breath, while Lily poured a stream of tea into two mugs and listened. “It turns out that the investigative reporter post – that’s the one I applied for – has gone to the editor’s niece.”

Lily still didn’t make any comment. She flicked me an unreadable expression.