‘Not a funny joke,’ said Gina. ‘If you’re not going to help, just go away and let me get on, please.’

‘How about I hold the steps?’

‘How about you get lost?’

‘All right, all right, no need to snap. I’ll go up the steps, you pass me the bunting and show me what to do.’

Gina looked at him for a very long moment. Then: ‘Fine,’ she said. ‘But for goodness’ sake keep the flags away from that cigarette. We don’t want them catching fire.’

By the time the bunting was all in place, James had stopped trying to be clever and Gina had decided he wasn’t too dislikeable after all.

‘Looks lovely,’ she said, standing back to admire the pretty flags fluttering along two sides of the lawn.

‘Does indeed,’ said James, looking straight at her. ‘I’m just wondering, what is there for a girl like you to do in the evenings at Grindle Hall?’

‘You mean after I’ve cleared the tea … er, the dinner things? Well, when your dad’s out, as he sometimes is on business, I play cards with your mum, or we do a jigsaw or the puzzles in a magazine, or listen to the wireless. And I’m teaching your mum to knit. It seems she never learned but she’s coming on nicely.’

‘Sounds fascinating,’ James said flatly.

Though Gina privately agreed that the evenings could be long and boring, she had grown fond of Edith, despite her peevishness, and she knew better than to express even a hint of discontent, especially to anyone in Edith’s own family.

‘I think your mother is pleased to have you home,’ she said, trying to change the subject. ‘How long do you plan to stay?’

‘Oh, I’m not a great one for making plans, Gina. I prefer to see how things work out. That way I can just go whenever I want and not feel I’m letting anyone down. Anyway, we were talking about you. You were telling me all about your entertaining evenings with my mother.’

‘Was I?’

‘You were just about to say that now the girls are here you are, regretfully, completely at a loose end. Then I was going to take pity on you – all alone with no jigsaws to do and the knitting lessons suspended for the duration – and offer to take you for a drive in my car, if you would like.’

‘I was? Were you?’

‘Certainly I was. So what do you think? Are you free for a little spin about the countryside in the beautiful Lancashire twilight, or is there a play on the Home Service you simply have to catch this evening?’