Laurel looked up as she heard Daisy asking to be allowed to go to Niall’s house and Rea saying, ‘You know I don’t want you walking about on your own in the dark, Daisy. Can’t Niall come here?’

Daisy pulled a face. ‘What, like boys are automatically safe and girls are automatically not? You have to treat us alike, Mum.’

‘Girls are more vulnerable than boys,’ Rea began, wiping down the white granite counter tops.

‘You wouldn’t say that if I was a boy,’ Daisy declared, hands on hips. ‘Most violence is directed against young men, especially gang fights and knife crime. It’s just sexualised crime that’s more common against females. Anyway, Niall has Disney+ and we don’t.’

Rea argued anxiously. ‘We have Netflix and Sky.’

‘There’s a new Marvel movie on Disney+ tonight,’ Daisy retorted, a typically mutinous teen butting heads with her mum rather than the tearful young woman who’d been valiantly trying to protect her for all these months. ‘And Mr Cassidy has replaced my Santa suit and I said I’d pick it up.’

Laurel stepped in. ‘I’ll walk her to Niall’s house, if that’s OK, Rea. I’m going out.’ She gave Daisy’s hair a friendly tug. ‘It might not be the mean streets of a big city but you can’t assume you’re safe just because Middledip’s warm and cuddly. Stay together, stay safe is a good rule.’

Daisy, happy now she’d achieved her goal, hissed, ‘Yessssss,’ and punched the air.

‘Sure?’ Rea asked Laurel, looking half-relieved and half-exasperated.

Laurel replied, ‘Sure.’ Then she texted Grady again: Expect me in the next hour.

‘Where are you going out to, Auntie Laurel?’ Daisy asked.

Rea pushed the cleaning cloth into Daisy’s hand and pointed at the table. ‘Laurel doesn’t need to report in to us.’

Laurel was glad of it. She didn’t madly want to say she was going to see Grady. When they’d been buddies in the past everyone had assumed they were more than friends.

They’d been right.

She didn’t need that kind of scrutiny now.

Daisy ran upstairs to fetch something and Rea turned to Laurel with haunted eyes. ‘Am I projecting my fears on her, not wanting her to go out?’

Laurel reassured her stoutly. ‘No. I think she should have someone with her in the dark.’

Rea’s shoulders relaxed. ‘Will you tell me if I get unreasonable about her freedom?’