‘I was always so happy there,’ she said, her voice like swathes of golden silk. ‘Golden summers they were. Maybe my memory’s just playing tricks, but I don’t remember a single bad thing. Granny used to get me to do the gardening.’ She laughed to herself. ‘Mum never knew, but she paid me to do the weeding and trim the edges of the lawn. I spent all of it on sweets in the village shop. Then there’d always be cake or afternoon tea…’ Another soft chuckle. ‘There was a bunch of kids I used to meet up with. We’d play hide-and-seek in the cornfields before they were harvested.’ Grace smiled to herself. ‘And, once the bales were in the fields, we’d climb up them and jump off. Mr Denby, the farmer, always positioned a few so they were like a climbing frame for us. Looking back, it was really kind of him, but at the time I just assumed that’s what hay bales were for. It’s such a beautiful part of the world. Fields for years.’ Grace came back to the present, her eyes refocusing.

‘Anyway, I was remembering all of that and I thought: this is nuts. Why am I working in London when I was so happy in Kent? Maybe I notice it more for having been in Australia, but London’s so choked. So dirty. Overcrowded. Crime-ridden. I don’t want to be a part of that. So I decided I’m going to look for a job either in Kent or on the south side of London, and move down there. The commuter lines are great. Even from as far as Ashford you can be in London in forty minutes. What do you think?’

My mouth was dry, my heart drumming. ‘Nice,’ I said, as levelly as I could. ‘Good idea.’ I stood up and inhaled deeply through my nose as I stood, using my hands to steady myself on the table.

‘Don’t go!’ Grace said, and was it me or was there an edge to her voice? ‘You’ve still got to tell me all about your weekend. Come on, sit down.’ She patted the table next to her. And what could I tell her? About the ruined date night; about the way she’d muscled in between Rohan and me, even when she wasn’t there? About the argument? Rohan’s doubts about her?

‘It was fine,’ I said.

She snorted. ‘Fine? Is that all? I’d have hoped you’d be swinging from the lampshades with me gone. I’d expect you to be pregnant with twins, at least.’ Her tone was dead.

I trilled a small laugh. ‘Right, if you don’t mind, I was just in the middle of something.’ I turned to go.

‘But you haven’t said anything about my plan? To move to Kent? What do you think?’

‘I think it’s a good idea.’

‘You’re not upset?’