Finally, Patience has realised that Claire is not a saint. Of course from the outside it obviously looks that way. Obviously she has been caring for her mother. Jacqueline hasn’t really gone hungry or dirty; she hasn’t been left to the mercy of the council. But it’s not as if Claire hasn’t been getting anything out of it, wearing this homemade halo on her head.

‘Caring,’ says Patience, ‘is something a person chooses to do.’

‘She told me she wanted to look after me. What was I going to do, send her away? I mean, I could have. I did think about it. Maybe it would have been the best thing for her. It’s not as if it’s done her brother any harm. Ross, that’s my son. He lives in Hong Kong now. He does something important for one of the banks there, I can’t remember exactly what, but it’s very, very important. He has to be out in Hong Kong. He can’t be here.’

‘You must be proud.’

‘Must I? I don’t really think about it. He was his own person, right from day one. You know he used to scream and scream about his swimming lessons? Oh my God, you’ve never heard such a voice. I’d got swimming lessons for the both of them and he hated it, so in the end I had to cancel them all. He’s never liked the water. And now he lives on an island! It’s just the way he is.’

Ross naked at the top of the stairs, throwing his trunks. Ross getting up from the table in the Golden Lotus, refusing to eat, refusing to stay, demanding the car keys so he could go and sit in the car. So much life in him! So much will!

‘His father got to him. He had some way of keeping in touch, emails, messages, something like that. What can you do? A son needs a man around. When he was fifteen, he said he wanted to go out to the Caymans and see him. Oh, he was adamant! So I sent him, and he had the summer of his life, not that he thanked me for it. Alan was on his best behaviour. Boats and swimming and lobsters and all that kind of thing. Ross never wanted to leave, but of course his father wasn’t going to keep him. He came home and he wouldn’t settle. I wasn’t surprised. He’d seen the world, hadn’t he? I wasn’t surprised he left when he did.’

‘Claire has never mentioned her brother to me.’

‘Of course she hasn’t. He’s living his life, she’s living hers, but she takes it all so personally. Everything’s personal with her.’