‘No, that’s okay, Mum – I don’t need you to fetch the voucher!’ Bess called, but too late. Her mum was gone for what seemed an age, so that when she eventually came back on the phone, Bess jumped, having started to daydream about straightening her hair.

‘Hello, Bess, are you there?’

‘Yes, Mum, I’m still here.’ She swallowed her sigh of irritation, knowing she should be grateful to still have both of her parents and that there would come a day when they were no longer around to sing to her. She remembered Jim’s words of earlier and smiled at the fact that her parents had never been embarrassed to launch into song. Good for them!

‘Right, your dad got a voucher from Philip.’

‘Yes, you said.’

‘It’s for a two-for-one main course or get one free pudding or something like that. We can use it at the carvery, as it’s part of a chain now.’

‘Oh, lovely.’ Philip, who now ran his own estate agency in Knutsford, was rich and largely absent in their parents’ lives. He did, however, send generous gifts, as if this could somehow make up for not having him there in person: a gas barbecue that was still in the box, a fancy foot spa, a garden lamppost yet to be wired up, and ‘his and hers’ down-filled coats for hiking. Bless him, it was as if he was buying for strangers, guessing what they might like and how they might live, and to a degree this was true. Bess knew that if she had all of Philip’s money, she’d send her mum and dad on a celebrity cruise. They spoke often of their neighbour’s experience. Mr and Mrs Franklin had gone to Madeira on a big boat and in the evening were entertained by Tony Christie. The Tony Christie! She could tell by her dad’s wistful stare off-centre that he had visions of joining Tony onstage to accompany him with his harmonica to a rousing rendition of ‘Is This the Way to Amarillo?’ Mario liked to remind her that her brother was rich because he was mean. She tutted, knowing this was far from the truth, keen to defend her brother always. Always. Bess knew it wasn’t meanness that made him keep his distance, but something more like self-preservation.