I don’t have help in the house, despite its size, despite my and Lottie’s tendency to create mess, despite Nick’s careless attitude towards our possessions, because I don’t want it. Gran was a cleaner and the stories she would come home with were a source of wicked delight to me. I loved the gossip, loved it when her lip curled in disgust at someone’s nasty habits, loved her huffs of exasperation, loved her bitchiness. That’s why I’d rather live with dust, thanks all the same, than have someone judge me and mine.

‘Right,’ Tim says. ‘Let’s go back to what happened at the weekend. Did he say anything? Did he appear worried or preoccupied? Was there anything at all that was different?’

‘Yes, there was.’ I look at them both. Tim nods encouragement, Cora waits, alert. ‘Nick asked me to marry him.’

Neither of them say a word, but Cora’s face is a picture of dismay.

‘I said yes,’ I add.

‘Well,’ Tim rushes forward and hugs me. ‘That’s wonderful news. Congratulations.’

‘Thank you.’ My voice sounds hollow.

I glance at Cora over his shoulder. She’s smiling thinly. ‘I’m so pleased,’ she says, sounding anything but.

I’ve imagined this moment, without Nick’s unexplained absence, of course, and thought about how they would react and how I’d respond. I knew it would be hard, but I didn’t foresee the physical ache that would come with Cora’s lack of enthusiasm. I’ve never really had a mother – at least not a fully functioning one – and Cora is not going to fill that space.

‘So you see,’ I say, my smile wavering, ‘we are very happy. Everything’s been going well. That’s why it’s so strange.’

Cora pushes back her chair and gets up. She goes to the sink, rinses a cloth under the tap, then starts to wipe down the surfaces.

‘Cora, there’s no need to do that.’

‘Come and sit down, darling,’ Tim says. ‘That can wait.’

‘I have to do something.’ She holds the cloth in both hands, twisting it. ‘My son has inexplicably disappeared. Good men don’t do that without a reason.’

‘But he has disappeared,’ I point out, ‘and he is a good man.’

‘In that case, he has secrets, Grace. There must be something he hasn’t told you.’

‘Nick’s as straight as a die,’ Tim says. ‘There’s no way he’d do anything that wasn’t above board.’