Now it was Leo’s turn to glance towards the door. ‘Did Mum actually tell you this? Maybe you’re …’ he didn’t want to imply that his dad was an idiot ‘… confused about something she said.’ Mum with another man is ridiculous, he told himself. Although, as he’d said to Rex, she did seem to be laughing more, these days, which he’d put down to her getting on better with his father.

Michael gave him an edgy half-smile. ‘Ask her yourself,’ he said, nodding towards the door as Romy walked in, carrying a tray laden with coffee, frothy milk and homemade lemon shortbread that one of Michael’s visitors had brought.

Leo had no intention of asking her. He was embarrassed for his father. But Romy must have sensed the atmosphere because she turned a questioning look on Leo.

‘What have you two been whispering about?’

‘Your friendly neighbour,’ Michael said promptly. ‘The one you spent the night with last week. Leo doesn’t seem to know anything about him.’

‘Mum …’ began Leo, intent on laughing it off. Then he saw the blush. Her head was bent over the coffee tray, but it was impossible to miss. ‘Mum?’

When Romy looked up, her expression was a mixture of defiance and irritation. She glared at his father. ‘Thanks,’ she muttered sarcastically.

Michael just shrugged. ‘I assumed he knew.’

She handed Leo a cup of coffee but didn’t look at him.

Leo frowned. ‘Mum?’ he repeated, for the third time, wondering what game these two were playing and wishing they wouldn’t.

He saw her sigh as she sat down with her own cup of coffee in the chair opposite his father.

‘I didn’t tell you because there’s nothing to tell.’

Leo took a relieved breath. ‘That’s what I told Dad.’

Then she went on quickly, ‘His name is Robert Fincham – everyone calls him Finch. He’s a neighbour in Sussex, retired from the army. And, yes, your father’s right. I have been seeing him, but it’s a very new thing. I didn’t want to tell you until I was sure there was something in it.’

Leo was silent as he tried to digest this extraordinary piece of news. ‘So is there? Something in it?’ he asked eventually. His mother was blinking nervously, while his father’s expression had reverted to a cynicism with which Leo was uncomfortably familiar.

‘I don’t know,’ Romy said unhelpfully.