When she entered, Gayle was standing with her arms braced on the counter, looking out of the window. There were no cups and saucers out, and the kettle was silent, no steam wafting up from its spout. Gayle turned, looking mildly surprised to see her. Anna thought her mother-in-law looked as if she’d aged ten years during the walk down the hall to the kitchen.

‘Don’t worry about tea for me,’ Anna said, deciding this wasn’t the time to bring anything up. ‘I think I’m going to head off shortly.’

Gayle just nodded, then walked over to the freezer, where she removed a plastic container from a drawer and handed it to Anna. ‘You’d better take these, then,’ she said, as Anna looked on, confused. ‘From the other week. We had quite a lot left over.’

Anna looked down. Inside the box, misty with frozen air, were twelve perfect vol au vents. The dig was as effective as if Gayle had prodded her in the chest with one of her perfectly manicured fingernails.

Gayle turned and busied herself putting a few things away from the dishwasher. ‘You were quite rude, I thought,’ she said, when she stood again, ‘to leave without having supper with us. We were all finding it difficult that day, not just you, and the very least you could have done if you were going to speed off like that was come in and say a proper goodbye to everyone.’

Anna was speechless.

Gayle put the mug she was holding in the cupboard, then turned to face her. ‘In difficult times, family really should stick together.’

Oh, now Anna was family? It hadn’t felt that way at Camber Sands, not one bit.

‘I think you owe me an apology,’ Gayle added.

Anna felt as if she’d been punched in the head. Gayle wanted an apology. From her? In what alternate universe was the woman living? She opened her mouth to tell Gayle exactly what she could do with her fricking apology, but then Richard’s words came back to her.

She’s struggling…

She looked back at Gayle. That tightness around the jaw, that determination, it was all Spencer. Mother and son had always looked like each other, but Anna had never seen it as clearly as she did at that moment. Her anger crumbled like the dry pastry inside the Tupperware box she was holding.

‘I am sorry the day ended badly,’ she said, and that was as much of an apology as Gayle was going to get, because it was the truth. ‘I found it difficult too…’ she added, but trailed off again as she saw the steely look in her mother-in-law’s eyes. There was no point. Not today. Gayle’s guard was up as high as it would go.

She hugged the chilly plastic box to herself. ‘Thank you for the vol au vents,’ she said, then gave Gayle a quick kiss and walked away.

Chapter Eighteen

‘DO YOU LIKE vol au vents?’

Brody was once again sitting in the armchair in his study. Lewis warmed his feet, and his mobile phone was alive and making noise, but this time there was also a tumbler of good single malt beside him on the occasional table with barley twist legs. He frowned. Had Anna just said what he thought she’d said?