Lilian tried to concentrate on her Best magazine. It didn’t do to dwell on things in this house. It was oppressive enough. Still, the Rabbi was due tomorrow. Even though Nancy’s following her Jewish faith annoyed Lily, it also gave her a free afternoon a week when she could go out of the house in peace, knowing that the young Rabbi would be too frightened to leave Nancy alone until she came back. She suppressed a grin. The poor boy’s face when she finally arrived was a picture. Nancy, self-righteous and actually being friendly, was more scary than when she was her usual overbearing and evil self.

Lily forced her mind back to her magazine just as the doorbell rang. She pushed herself up on the bed. Who could that be? She jumped up and hastily brushed her clothes to get rid of any tell-tale biscuit crumbs. The bell rang again and she rushed from the room.

By now her mother-in-law’s bell was also ringing. It was an old-fashioned school bell and Lily sometimes fancied that it tolled her life away. She hurried to the front door.

‘Hello, Lily.’ George stood on the step smiling at her.

‘Oh . . . This is a surprise.’

He walked into the spacious hall.

‘Where’s Elaine?’

George visiting was a shock, but George without Elaine was an even bigger one.

‘Oh, she’s at work. I had a bit of time and I thought, I know, I’ll go and visit poor Mother.’

Lily’s face froze. Who on earth in their right mind would visit Nancy Markham, correction Markowitz, if they didn’t have to?

Nancy’s voice thundered from the front room.

‘Lily, who is it? Who’s knocking the bloody door down?’

She wished that the caller had been the young Rabbi; she’d have loved Nancy to drop her guard in front of him.

The bell began to ring furiously and George gestured with his head to the door on his right.

‘I take it she’s in there?’

He walked into the room.

‘Hello, Mother.’ His voice was meek once more. His mother always had that effect on him.

Nancy recovered her equilibrium fast.

‘Oh, it’s you, is it?’

George dutifully kissed her cheek. He could smell her lavender perfume and face powder.

‘I thought I’d give you a little visit, see how you were faring.’

She snorted. ‘I’m not ready for the knacker’s yard yet, me boy, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

She rang the bell furiously again. George watched her large hand grasping the wooden handle and lifting it up over her shoulder then swinging it down towards the floor.

‘Lily, bring in a pot of fresh tea.’ They heard her scuffling across the hall from the kitchen. ‘And make sure it’s stronger than that gnat’s piss you made earlier,’ Nancy called.