‘Can’t understand what?’

‘Well,’ her mum said, adjusting her apron over her legs, ‘I mean, your dad and I provided a good environment for you kids to flourish – look at Philip.’ Bessie took the slight and folded it into a small seed that would sit in her gut. ‘And I thought we did the same with you.’

Maybe it’s me . . . Is that what you’re saying?

‘And then we’ve got Michelle, whose family are a bit . . .’

‘A bit what?’

Her mum pulled a face. ‘Well, for a start, they’ve got half the family living in a bloody caravan! I mean, how does someone in that environment do better than you?’ she huffed.

Bessie faced her mother, aghast. Yes, it was true. Michelle’s two brothers slept in a caravan on the driveway as there was no space inside the house for them, not since her nan, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, had been widowed and had moved in. Michelle said they had briefly considered putting her nan in the caravan and letting the boys stay put in their bunk beds, but as she was prone to leaving the gas on and going a-wanderin’ in the wee small hours, it wouldn’t have worked. Her dad had suggested padlocking the door from the outside so she couldn’t escape, but Michelle’s mum thought that was a bit cruel and, besides, they might lose the key. Her dad had apparently smiled jokingly at the thought and her mum had cried.

‘You mean because they’re poorer than us?’ she said.

‘Well, no.’ Her mum gave an awkward laugh. ‘Although, in a way, yes.’ She ran her tongue over her teeth.

‘That’s a terrible thing to say, Mum!’

‘Why? It’s true!’

‘How is it true?’ Bessie felt a hot flame of injustice in her breast. Michelle’s family was lovely, money or not, and it wasn’t lost on her that her own family lived in a very modest house where income was low. It bothered her that her mum took this view, enjoying the elevated position, whereas in reality, both families were in a leaky lifeboat, bailing hard month after month and always only one lost paycheck away from sinking. The only real difference was that Michelle’s family had a caravan on the driveway, whereas her family couldn’t afford a caravan.

‘I just mean that people like Michelle’s family don’t seem to value education in the way that people like Dad and I do.’

‘What do you mean, people like you and Dad? Who are you friends with – Lady Di?’

‘Oh God, I wish! I would’ve loved you to have been a bridesmaid. We’d have had to pencil your eyebrows in, mind.’

Bessie looked at her thin brows in the mirror and felt some of her earlier confidence falter, not that Lawrence seemed too bothered about such detail when they were having sex.