I helped Lucy to pack an overnight bag for herself and the boys. She rang her mum to ask if she could come and collect them once she had finished her shift at work. I stayed for another half an hour or so, until her mum was on her way, then told her I had to get home. She thanked me for my support.

‘I’m so glad you were here. I was really losing it for a bit there. Please, ignore what I said earlier about the old woman. It was stupid of me. I realise I must have sounded like a total fruitcake. I was so scared for Georgie. I don’t know what I’d have done if … No, I can’t even think about it.’

I went home with a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Lucy was right: it could have been so much worse. I was hugely relieved that Georgie was all right. I felt bad, too, that I had actually wondered if there was something in her suspicions about Mrs Barley. It seemed crazy now to think she could put curses on people, but Alfie had been so poorly after eating the cakes, and the angry look she had given Lucy that day – I knew I hadn’t imagined it. But surely it was ridiculous to think that an old woman could stoop so low as to give a child food poisoning …

Even if it meant breaking her family up, I felt that Lucy was doing the right thing leaving Eddie. As if it wasn’t bad enough that he did nothing to support or help her, the fact that he was cheating on her – and so publicly – was unforgivable. It worried me, too, what being brought up in that kind of atmosphere might do to little Alfie. Children pick up very quickly on hostility between their parents. Sometimes it was better for them to live apart than to be in a constant war zone.

Whether it would bring Eddie to his senses or not was another matter. But in my eyes, a waster like that didn’t deserve a second chance. Right now, Lucy needed looking after. Someone who would step up to the plate, share the load, treat her with love and respect. And he clearly wasn’t man enough for the job.

*

That Thursday was Halloween. While Elodie was obviously far too tiny to know anything was going on, we still enjoyed keeping up the tradition. Jack brought a pumpkin home and hollowed out its centre. I carved a grinning face, then positioned it in the front window. I wasn’t sure whether we could expect trick-or-treaters but had bought plenty of sweets from the shop just in case, and at dusk we lit a candle to place inside the pumpkin. The weather had been cold but dry, and as night fell, the full moon against its inky black backdrop seemed to set the scene perfectly.