Eric and David looked at each other. To their testament they at least had the decency to look guilty. ‘We’ve been doing our best,’ Eric said slowly. ‘I’ve done what I can. I don’t know numbers very well and it’s been a bit of a muddle, but Charlie has been brilliant behind the bar and all the staff have stepped up and done their best as well.’

Penny started to shake. ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,’ she began. ‘I need to know these things. What if something worse had happened? What if you’d died and I didn’t know and I could have helped and …’ The last two words came out in powerful sobs, and she stood back up from her plastic visitor’s chair to go to her uncle, holding his arm and bending down to hug him, crying onto his shoulder. He let her.

‘I’m sorry, Pen,’ he said, trying to move his body so he could rub her back, a move that he’d done to her her whole life whenever she was upset.

‘You can’t be sorry for being ill!’ she cried into his bedsheets.

‘I’m getting old, these things happen …’

‘You shouldn’t be working if your health is bad! Bloody hell!’ She realized, then, in an instant, why the pressure to take over had become stronger and stronger lately. He couldn’t run his own business – the business he’d spent his entire adult life building. He’d had a heart attack. And now another. The understanding of it all was dizzying. Penny felt sick. He’d been trying to tell her, in his own way, and every time Penny had accused him of trying to boss her around in her own life out of – what? Malice? His own interest? She’d been willingly deaf to the hints he’d tried to give her.

‘Well,’ Eric said. ‘He won’t be working now. The doctor says his heart muscle is very weak. He’s been lucky, but apparently it’s going to take several months for him to get better. The decision has been made for him.’

‘Okay,’ Penny nodded. ‘That’s good. Rest is good. You can do that, can’t you Davvy? You can rest?’

‘I’ve got no choice,’ said Uncle David.

‘Knock, knock,’ a gentle voice came at the door. ‘I don’t mean to intrude, but Penny – I brought you a hot chocolate.’ Penny had been lightly dozing and stirred slowly, taking it from Francesco with gratitude. ‘I thought you could use the sugar.’

‘Clever bean,’ said Eric, standing. ‘David, this is the Italian we’ve been hearing about. He was the one who got Penny up here, and in record time.’

‘Hi,’ said Francesco, extending a hand. ‘I’m so sorry for what happened.’

‘David,’ Uncle David said, limply giving a handshake.

‘I’m so pleased you’re okay.’