She and Ray were in bed together when Grace’s visit popped back into her consciousness. They generally celebrated Ray’s returns in bed. According to the magazine articles that she read at the doctor’s, sex tended to fall away when a couple got married, but that definitely wasn’t the case for her and Ray. He was always up for a bit of fun when he got home. Melissa had put herself quietly on the pill, though. She had enough on, looking after Leah by herself. She didn’t want her life to be any harder, and Ray didn’t seem to mind. He had never talked about wanting any more children, so neither did Melissa.

Ray lay back and pushed the chintzy duvet away, revealing his toned torso. ‘That is the best bit about coming back here,’ he said with a wolfish smile.

‘Oi!’ Melissa clouted him over the head with a pillow. ‘I’m the best bit. All of me. Not just . . .’ She cocked her head to one side, embarrassed. ‘You know.’

‘You are, baby, you are,’ he said, and pulled her to him so that her head rested on his chest.

Melissa snuggled into him and pulled the duvet back over her shoulders to protect her from the chilly air. Then she remembered the woman with the posh voice who had come knocking.

‘I had a visitor this week,’ she said. Ray made an enquiring sound, and so she continued. ‘A woman. Can’t remember her name but she was proper up-market. Not from round here, like, I can tell you that. She wasn’t snooty or nothing, though. She was dead nice.’

She wasn’t sure Ray was even listening. His breathing was deep and regular. Had he fallen asleep?

‘What did she want?’ he asked.

So he was listening, Melissa thought contentedly. ‘That was the weird thing,’ she said. ‘She’d just come to say hello. She said she’s married to your half-brother or something.’

Melissa felt Ray tense beneath her, the muscles in his chest tightening so that she felt her head lift a little. He held his breath, but she could hear his heart beating hard into her ear.

‘I didn’t even know you had a brother,’ she said. ‘You never mentioned one.’

Still Ray didn’t speak, and Melisa began to worry that she’d done the wrong thing by letting the woman in. ‘She was really nice,’ she assured him. ‘Dead friendly, like.’

Finally, Ray found his voice. ‘What did she say?’

‘Not much,’ said Melissa, as she struggled to remember the conversation. ‘She just said that she was married to your half-brother and that she had a little girl about the same age as Leah. I think that was it. I liked her. Oh, and she said she’d like to come again.’

Ray was quiet for a moment longer. He played with her hair, twisting it round his fingers gently, and Melissa relaxed again.