Talk about the odd couple, Nula thought whenever she saw Milly and Belle playing in the grounds together. Milly, plain as a pikestaff, always shy and too eager to please, and pretty little Belle who could afford to be cool. Nula knew it was unkind to think that way, but she’d had her own struggles with her looks and she could see that poor Milly was going the same way. Belle wouldn’t, though. She noticed that although Harlan might ignore his new ‘sister’ most of the time, little Belle fascinated him. Nula remembered him coming into the house for the first time, looking around, taking it all in, absorbing it almost greedily. Then picking out a tiny room to be his alone. Private. Keep out. He had that same faintly obsessive attitude around Belle. Whenever she was near, Harlan watched her with total attention, like a cat might watch a bird. If she spoke to anyone else, to Milly, or little Nige Pope from school, with his shock of red hair, who clearly adored her, Harlan always elbowed his way into the conversation. He was sort of possessive about her.

Nula felt bitter about Belle. Trust bloody Jill to have such a little charmer. Already Belle was showing signs of easy sociability. She had a wide circle of friends. She spent hours down the riding stables, hacking out on the ponies, helping with mucking out. Although Belle always encouraged Milly to join in, Milly preferred to sit at home, reading books; she was scared of horses. And she hated meeting new people. She was scared of every bloody thing, it seemed to Nula. In that, Nula realized – painfully – Milly was very much her mother’s daughter.

‘We ought to have a party for the kids,’ said Charlie.

They’d settled Harlan into the nearest school, the same one Belle and Milly went to, and he seemed to be doing OK. He wasn’t chatty, or popular, but he was doing fine.

Nula thought about it. Charlie was cock-a-hoop over his new son. He’d set up what he laughingly called a ‘petting’ zoo down on the far side of the orchard and was busy stocking it with reptiles, frogs, all the stuff that he and Harlan took a keen interest in, all the stuff that turned Nula’s stomach. What the fuck was the point of having a ‘petting zoo’ full of things you were scared to pet? All through the summer there was hammering, cranes in the garden, men in hard hats working on the newly erected building, men digging in cables to connect the house phone to the cubbyhole in the feed room down there so that Charlie never missed a call. Then – at last – it was finished.

‘We’ve got the zoo up and running now, we can get Harlan to cut the ribbon on the day, the kids’ll love it,’ said Charlie.