‘And how’s your hand?’

‘Fine.’ Maude raised her palm. There was the tiny red dot on the fleshy base of her thumb, no bigger than a freckle.

‘Evie! Maude!’ Carolyn’s voice drifted up the stairs. ‘Supper’s ready.’

Evie sat at the dressing table. ‘OK,’ she called.

‘Evie!’

‘Just a minute.’ Evie pulled one of the ribbons free. ‘I made this,’ she said to Maude, ‘and then I thought of you.’ The bracelet held another one of her mother’s silver charms, a tiny silver daisy, knotted onto pale blue ribbon. Evie wound it around her wrist, three times. ‘You should keep it on, all the time.’ She smiled. ‘For luck.’

*

They ate in the kitchen, at the large pine table. The girls, Evie and Maude, sat on a bench with their backs against the wall, facing Nell. Oliver and Carolyn took a seat at either end of the table.

There were bowls of olives, and shallow dishes filled with roasted peppers, as well as large plates filled with a variety of bruschetta. Just a bit of supper, Nell thought, trying to catch Maude’s eye.

‘Mashed cannelloni and garlic,’ said Carolyn, pointing to one. ‘Tomato and anchovies there. Shrimp there. Just help yourself. Ollie, could you do the wine?’

As they filled their plates, Nell found she had to explain Chris’s absence all over again. ‘We’ve run into a bit of a problem with the new shop. He had to go back to deal with a planning issue.’

‘Really?’ Oliver looked interested in this development, and Nell hoped he wasn’t going to offer any professional advice.

‘The earrings look good,’ she said to Carolyn, more to change the subject than anything else.

Carolyn pushed back her hair and tilted her head; the earrings shuddered in the candlelight. ‘Anniversary present,’ she said, smiling fondly at her husband.

‘I can’t really take any credit,’ said Oliver. ‘She’d been going on about them for ages, kept showing me this very fancy website – I had to be very canny about the delivery address, got you to send it to my office.’

‘I didn’t think he’d been paying attention,’ said Carolyn, ‘it was the most lovely surprise.’

It was strange to think Nell had parcelled them up and sent them off, all unawares. ‘Well, you have excellent taste,’ said Nell. ‘So well done.’

‘Is it odd?’ Evie asked. ‘When you meet someone and they’re wearing something you designed?’

‘I don’t know. It doesn’t happen very often. Usually, if some-one’s wearing something I’ve made, it’s because I gave it to them, and that’s different, I suppose.’

‘You don’t mix with your clients, then?’ Oliver asked.

‘Evidently not. Do you?’

‘Hard not to, around these parts.’

Carolyn kept getting up to deal with the main course, an elaborate seafood risotto, as Nell, Evie and Oliver did their best to keep the conversation moving along.