‘Oh God, don’t,’ said Kirsty. ‘Just the mention of spiders makes me shiver.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Everyone looked at the ceiling, then Paul spluttered with laughter. ‘The Blair Witch comes to Mount Pleasant Street. Maybe this building is haunted by dead children.’

‘Paul!’ Kirsty protested. ‘That’s not in very good taste.’

‘Oh God, I’m sorry.’ Both Kirsty and Heather were giving him filthy looks; it wasn’t the best comment to make in front of two nurses who worked in a children’s ward. Lucy, too, was perturbed by his comment. She stared into the remains of her meal, a tense expression on her face.

‘How long has Mary lived here?’ Jamie asked.

Chris answered: ‘She was here before we moved in.’

Jamie thought that Lucy was tense because no-one had taken her comments seriously. Feeling the need to humour her and make her feel better, he said, ‘And have you ever seen any evidence that she’s into witchcraft? Because I went up there and she seemed like a bit of a hippy, but definitely nothing worse.’

Heather said, ‘This is getting surreal. Can we change the subject?’

‘Yes!’ said Kirsty, standing up quickly. ‘Who wants dessert?’

‘Yes please,’ said Paul.

‘I’ll give you a hand,’ said Jamie.

In the kitchen, Jamie whispered, ‘How do you think it’s going?’

‘Quite well, I think. Apart from that stuff about Mary. What was all that about?’

Jamie shook his head. ‘I think Lucy’s a bit drunk. Chris seems like an OK bloke, though. It’s spooky, isn’t it, that we all have such similar jobs.’

‘Hmm. It’s good though – we all have something in common. Just promise me you won’t turn the conversation around to computers. I don’t want to hear about e-commerce and gigabytes and HTMS.’

‘It’s HTML.’

‘I said I don’t want to hear about it.’

As Kirsty picked up the bowls, Jamie grabbed her round the waist and kissed her. ‘You know what HTML really stands for? How to meet ladies.’

She batted him away. ‘Do you think Paul fancies Heather? I’ve seen him looking at her all evening.’

‘In that dress, anyone would look at her. Except me, of course. As I only have eyes for you, my darling.’

She ignored him. ‘He blushed when she pinched his cheek.’

‘But then he blew it with his dead children comment.’

‘Oh, she’ll have forgotten about that by now. I reckon something might happen between them.’ Kirsty loved matchmaking. She was always trying to get mutual friends to get off with each other. She had this image of herself as some kind of urban Cupid, firing arrows of love into the hearts of her friends.

‘Promise me you won’t interfere,’ Jamie said.

‘As if I would.’

They carried the dessert into the living room. Paul, Heather, Lucy and Chris had resumed their conversation. They were talking about their favourite pastimes.