‘Penny, hi!’ I drop the wooden spoon onto the worktop as she strides into my kitchen. Her expression is bizarrely flat, possibly even angry. She didn’t knock, but then, she never does; it’s the trait of hers that drove Andy most crazy. I mean, what if we were in the middle of doing something? Bizarrely, Chrissie – who is a polite door-knocker – seems to have followed her in, and is looking pale and quite upset.

‘Hi, Viv,’ Penny says sharply.

I push back my hair and turn off the hob. As the two of them are no more than acquaintances, I have no idea what’s going on.

‘What … what’s happening? Is something up?’ I look at them both in turn.

‘Viv, I’m so sorry,’ Chrissie starts. There’s no bold red lipstick today, and her hair is stuffed back into its topknot. ‘He didn’t mean it,’ she adds, her eyes wide with alarm. ‘He really didn’t. It just … happened.’

‘Who didn’t mean what?’

‘Ludo,’ she exclaims. ‘You know how sweet he is, how he’d never want to upset anyone. And he didn’t realise, and it’s all my fault …’

The cat-stoning incident springs into mind. ‘Has he hurt Bobby?’ I gasp.

‘No, of course not!’ Chrissie cries. ‘He’d never hurt an animal—’

‘Look, I know about this thing at the museum,’ Penny cuts in, her gaze meeting mine. ‘I know that you and Nick have been in cahoots, planning it, this thing that’s going to be huge, apparently, and neither of you thought to say a word about it to me.’

I stare at her, my mouth open, feeling as if I’ve been punched in the gut. ‘Viv, I’m so sorry,’ Chrissie goes on, although my gaze still is fixed upon Penny’s face. I have never seen her looking angry before. Disgruntled, yes, and irritated, when she’s had a spat with Hamish, but never properly furious like this. Oh, shit. I have misread things so badly and made a terrible mistake.

‘We ran into Penny in the park after school,’ Chrissie adds, biting at a fingernail. ‘She was out with Bobby and of course, Ludo ran straight over to play with him. You know how he loves animals …’

‘Never mind, Chrissie,’ I say distractedly. ‘It’s done now, and it can’t be helped.’ I turn back to Penny. ‘Pen, look … we were planning to tell you. Of course we were.’

‘So, why didn’t you?’ She plonks her hands on her hips.

‘You’ve been away,’ I say faintly. ‘I’ve been wanting to talk to you, but—’

‘That was only for a few days,’ she cuts in. ‘You’ve been planning this for weeks—’

‘Where’s Nick? Have you spoken to him at all?’ Christ, now it sounds as if I am trying to shift the blame, which isn’t my intention at all.