Worse, over the following years of uni, an arts barn in Cornwall and then life with Alex, Laurel had been so wrapped in her own dramas that she’d hardly noticed Rea’s mental health issues increasing, and that avoidance of city driving and multi-storey car parks had been joined by avoidance of crowds and public transport. None of those aversions had seemed to Laurel to deserve the label of ‘phobia’. They’d just been situations that made Rea flustered.

Then dislikes grew into anxieties and triggers multiplied.

This spring, Rea had begun experiencing panic attacks when out of the home. She’d changed jobs so she could work remotely and it had been like the final lock turning to shut her into The Nookery. Though Rea owed Laurel nothing, Laurel owed Rea a lot, so she’d come back. Here. Where she didn’t want to be. During the past five years, selling through galleries, online and via the busy events calendar of the studios in Chiswick where she’d rented space, she’d earned repute in the art world and could have worked anywhere. The reason she hadn’t moved out of Alex’s house immediately post-divorce had been because she’d been looking into once again finding a studio in the mellow light of Cornwall. Later, she’d planned, she might try Wales and then France or Italy. Such a travelling life was now on the back burner while she helped Rea and Daisy through their respective issues, but at least a period in Middledip would give Laurel time to put her divorce behind her and move on.

Daisy’s gaze flitted uneasily between her mother and her aunt and her voice climbed several notes. ‘Maybe keeping up Nan’s work on the house is why you don’t go out, Mum?’

‘Maybe,’ Rea agreed, though her smile wavered.

Laurel’s heart faltered. It seemed as if something she’d said had worried an already worried youngster. Now she and Rea were both gazing anxiously at Daisy. Perhaps the three of them were trapped in a cycle of worrying about each other and they’d never break free.

She tried not to believe it.

Surely a time would come when Rea felt able to live more normally? Daisy would get over her truanting and in a year, or even in a few months, there would be no need for Laurel to remain in this house, which she half-owned but had not considered her home for a long time. She could pick up those travel plans again.