“I’ve always found that, if you allow it, the universe provides you with exactly what you need at precisely the right time, don’t you agree, Sadie?”

As a single woman who’s had to develop some pretty nimble skills when it comes to budgeting my very average wage to keep Norman and I ticking along, I had about as much faith in the unseen power of the universe as I did in the supposed hand of God. But I was certainly more than a little jealous of Leonard’s escape from Dennis and the car yard, and by the time (under strict accountant’s orders and to Dennis’s unmitigated disgust) I’d bank-transferred his final wages, including, ironically, a couple of weeks accrued holiday pay, I stopped feeling bad and started wondering if I, and possibly the universe, had actually done him quite the favor.

The other thing was that with no job to slow him down Leonard was able to work full-time on getting things happening on Norman’s plan. Which was a bit of a novelty because, if I’m honest, getting things happening is not something I’m used to. Usually any big ideas I have only last just slightly longer than the realization that I may have to get off the sofa and contribute in order for them to progress. So, you know, not long.

Consequently, I was a little taken aback when Leonard arrived on our doorstep again on the Sunday morning of the week he’d left Pearl’s. He’d woken me from a very deep sleep and a dream in which I was being chased along the Penzance seafront by a giant inflatable pointing finger attached to a shock of bouffant hair, with a floating thought bubble above it that said Bad Mother in huge black letters. I’d managed to tackle the finger and was bashing away, trying to deflate it, but every time I hit it there was a noise like a doorbell being jabbed hard and insistently, and even in the dream all I could think was, Jax is back.

Only of course it wasn’t Jax at the door, it was Leonard, and the part of me that was still a little bit asleep felt a lurch of disappointment. My heart hurt, I mean actually physically hurt, whenever I thought about Jax, so I kept myself very busy trying hard not to let him into my head. But when he did get in it was like a sharp current that just kept on stabbing at my temples over and over. Just like Jax himself, really.

Leonard was way too polite to mention that a better mother would probably have been up before ten o’clock, even if it was a Sunday. But I did see him shoot a startled glance at my hair, which I knew from experience could give Dennis’s a run for its money after a restless night.

“Oh dear, I’m terribly sorry if I woke you, Sadie. I... I did text when I left home to say I was on my way, as we arranged earlier in the week, or at least...oh dear, well, I... I thought I did...”