‘What if Mr and Mrs Stellion haven’t heard she’s dead? It seems such a strange thing after she worked for them for all that time – you’d have thought her nephew would have let them know – but they’d have wanted to be at the funeral, surely, and I know they weren’t there. Gina told me earlier that Mrs S was going to Whalley to see a friend.’

‘I don’t know, Nell. Had she fallen out with them at all, do you know?’

‘Like what?’

‘Well, she did leave with her broken arm and never went back. And your Gina was made housekeeper quite soon after Mrs Thwaite’s accident.’

‘She retired, that’s all. I expect she was glad to go and live with her sister and not have to work.’

‘I expect so. I’ll get Mum on to it next time the library van comes around and let you know.’

‘By heck, Dora, you’ve made this a little palace,’ said Audrey Mason, going in through the back door of Highview Cottage and looking around the kitchen.

‘Thank you, Audrey. We’ve been busy but we’ve had a lot of help: Nancy and Albert couldn’t have been kinder, and Ed’s a grand lad and painted all the ceilings. Truth be told, I think it was half to impress our Nell, but I don’t mind. And then Tom, of course, shifted all the furniture up- and downstairs for us. Even Gina helped by washing the front windows downstairs when we were finished.’

‘David, Frank, you two sit there and don’t touch anything,’ instructed Audrey, pointing to the hearthrug. ‘Polly, you and Teddy on that chair, please, love, and do try not to suck Teddy’s paws. You’ll get fur in your stomach.’

‘Come and sit on my knee, boys,’ said Dora. ‘There now, that’s grand … So you see, we’re very lucky.’

‘Well, you deserve a bit of luck, Dora. And how’s things between you and Tom?’

Dora smiled. It wouldn’t be like Audrey Mason not to say what was passing through her mind. ‘Thank you, we’re just fine. Tom’s a good man – the best – but I’m still married to Phil.’

‘No one would blame you if you were to divorce him, love, what with him being like he is. It’s not as if you haven’t got grounds.’

‘I know, but divorce, Audrey. I don’t know anyone who’s divorced.’

‘Nor me, but I bet we could point to a few with unhappy marriages.’

Dora sighed. ‘True enough, lass, but it feels like kicking him when he’s down. Besides, I have to wait five years after he’s been certified insane, and that’s a long time yet.’