He looked up sharply. ‘Sorry,’ he interrupted, slightly startled, putting the DVD down. ‘I just stopped for a second.’ He added, quickly, ‘But I promise I was looking.’

Ellen gave him a hard stare.

He winced.

Despite being fairly hopeless, Jack didn’t annoy Alexa as much as he annoyed Ellen. This also annoyed Ellen. While she was sometimes a little short with him, Alexa treated him with the benevolent patience of an experienced primary school teacher. Inevitably, he responded better to this treatment than to her own strangled infuriation. She took a deep breath and tried to summon her reserves of composure. Jack was staring beseechingly at her. She folded her arms and announced, ‘Luckily for us, Alexa is fixing it.’

‘Oh!’ he said brightly, clearly not following. ‘Great!’ He stood up, abandoning the DVDs, and giving his now-dusty tracksuit bottoms a brush with his palms. He stared expectantly at her.

‘She’s downstairs,’ Ellen supplied. ‘Switching the water off.’

Jack nodded enthusiastically.

‘So we should go help her.’

‘Right.’

‘Now?’ Ellen jerked her thumb towards the door.

But Jack was already walking slowly towards the skylight set in the ceiling, and opened it. He stuck his head out and then turned back to her. ‘It’s a really nice day.’

‘Right.’ Ellen rolled her eyes. While Jack stuck his head out of the window, like a dog in a car, she crouched down, enjoying the periodic reprieve from having to hold herself entirely upright.

‘Sorry.’ He pulled his head back in. ‘I’m coming.’ His face brightened. ‘Hi, Alexa.’

Ellen turned round. Alexa had appeared in the doorway. She was now wearing slippers, and a downcast expression. Ellen stood up.

‘Hey,’ Alexa said, quickly. ‘So I tried to turn the water off under the sink, but I couldn’t twist it. It’s really stiff.’ She stepped into the room and wrinkled her nose. ‘God, look at all this rubbish.’ She frowned at a defeated lawnmower, ancient yellowing grass still stuck to its shell. ‘Anyway’ – she recovered her focus – ‘Jack, I was wondering if you could come and help me? I think it might need some muscle.’

Ellen resisted the urge to snort.

‘What?’ Jack was clearly thinking the same thing as Ellen.

‘Could you come and help me turn the stopcock, under the sink?’ she repeated, with barely a flicker of impatience. ‘It’s stuck.’