‘There’s no harm done,’ said Nell, glancing at her phone; she’d check it later, the call log, the search history, just in case.

‘So, what do you fancy doing today?’ Chris said. He looked annoyingly well rested.

‘Nothing,’ said Maude, turning her attention back to the shoe. ‘There’s nothing to do here.’

‘Well, that’s just not true,’ said Chris. ‘We could go on the beach.’

And that was it, Nell realised. Apparently they were going to carry on as if nothing had happened. ‘It might be a bit too cold for that today,’ she said. ‘You guys could take a drive out somewhere, perhaps?’

‘Where?’ Maude ran her finger across the leather again, and Nell felt the oddest urge to slap her hand away. The smell in the kitchen had got worse and she shouldn’t have had that coffee, decaf or no, her stomach was acid, churning,

‘I don’t know, down the coast to Bay, perhaps, or inland, up onto the moors.’

‘Don’t you want to come?’

This was a trick question, of course.

‘I’m not feeling too clever today, to be honest,’ Nell said. ‘I didn’t sleep very well. Anyway, you two don’t need me to have a good time.’

Maude said, looking at her father, ‘Can we go? Just you and me?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Chris, looking thoughtfully at Nell.

‘There’s a little museum at Bay, or rather, there was,’ said Nell. ‘Natural history, and a bit about the lifeboat there, you might like it.’

Maude tilted her head to one side, waiting, daring her father to say no. ‘What about this?’ she said, gently patting the shoe.

‘It’ll keep,’ said Nell.

Chris nodded. ‘Go and get your jacket,’ he said, ‘and don’t take all morning about it.’

‘OK.’

Nell waited until Maude was out of the room before sitting at the table, her head ached and her eyes were sore.

‘Are you sure you don’t want to come?’ he said.

‘I’m sure. It’s fine. I’m fine; she’s obviously dying to have you to herself for a bit. Just try not to completely ruin her with treats and sugar.’

‘As if.’

‘Did she say?’ Nell asked. ‘That she took it?’

‘No.’ He leant against the counter, picking the phone up, inspecting it, then carefully putting it back in place. ‘It was just here when I came down this morning.’

‘And you didn’t ask?’

‘Is there any point? She’s apologised.’

‘But don’t you want to know why she took it?’

‘I think we can work that out ourselves, love. It won’t happen again.’

Nell considered the shoe, small and ugly on the table in front of her. ‘One of us should ring the letting agency,’ she said, ‘I’ll do it later.’