‘She does,’ Andy says. ‘I keep telling her that.’

‘All this praise!’ I remark as we clear the table. ‘It’s going to go to my head.’

Andy grins at our son. ‘She still won’t tell me her secret method, even after all these years.’

‘If I did, I’d have to kill you,’ I remark.

He chuckles and winds an arm around my waist, and I detect a hint of relief passing over Spencer’s face, as if he’s thinking, Oh, so they are okay after all.

Izzy bounces back into the kitchen wearing a flamboyant outfit the girls have put together: yellow top, red trousers, pea green feather boa and more jewellery than I’d have thought it was possible to pile onto a seven-year-old child.

‘So you let Millie help you choose what to wear and not your own mother?’ I tease her, taking pictures with my phone.

‘Yeah, but Millie knows about fashion.’ She giggles.

‘Penny does too. But you won’t let her pick your outfits either.’

Izzy grins slyly. ‘Penny said the f-word,’ she announces, at which Spencer feigns shock.

‘Did she? That’s outrageous! What was that all about?’

She looks at me. ‘What was it, Mum? She didn’t want to put cheese in the soup?’

‘My God, Izzy, that was weeks ago …’ Of course, kids never forget when an adult does something they shouldn’t. They file it away for future reference and delight in bringing it up.

‘Is cheese in soup a thing?’ Spencer muses, when I tell him the story.

‘Of course it is,’ I exclaim, in mock outrage. ‘Tomato soup needs cheese.’

‘It’s kind of retro,’ Andy adds, ‘but yeah, it really works. You should try it, Spence. But it’s got to be cheap Cheddar—’

‘Thanks for the tip, Dad.’ He grins and turns to me. ‘So, how is the lovely Penny?’

‘She’s doing great.’

‘Still seeing that musician guy on the boat?’ He means Hamish, with the velvet jackets, cravats and a great bouffe of silvery hair, who has the kind of voice that ‘carries’ (i.e. he always talks as if he’s making a public speech).

‘He says he’s a composer,’ I reply with a smile, ‘and yes, she is, although I don’t know how serious it is …’

‘He’s quite a bit younger than her, isn’t he?’ Andy remarks. I’m surprised he’s even picked up on that. Before the Estelle business he was never interested in my friends.

‘Um, yes. He’s in his early sixties, I think.’

‘That’s not young,’ Izzy splutters.