She beamed, clearly delighted by the suggestion. ‘I could show you the ones the official photographer took. I’ll bring them to the wine and cheese. Remind me of the date, dear,’

‘The date of what?’

‘Of the wine and cheese. You’re hosting.’

‘Am I? Are we? Giles didn’t tell me.’

June put a worried hand to her mouth. ‘Oh dear, I do hope he hasn’t forgotten. They are so hard to rearrange, because everybody is so very busy, you see.’

I placed a hand on her arm. ‘I’m sure he hasn’t forgotten. Giles is very organised about such things. I bet he’s mentioned it to me and I just haven’t been listening properly.’

She looked thoughtfully up at me and I instinctively braced. ‘So very scatty,’ she said quietly.

I suppressed a sigh. ‘Well, like I say, I’m sure it’s all fine, but I’ll mention it to Giles when he gets home.’

‘Ah, yes, and how is he?’ Her eyes twinkled impishly. ‘William tells me the two of you were holding hands in the very front row of his concert.’

‘We weren’t holding hands, June,’ I said, politely but firmly.

‘And canoodling.’

‘And we were definitely not canoodling. Giles and I are not—’

‘Oh and here’s Kerry,’ she said, leaning to look past me and waving, ‘in her pyjamas.’

I turned to discover Kerry now just a few paces from us. ‘Hello, both. Sorry about the loungewear,’ she said, brushing down her navy hooded sweatshirt and joggers, ‘but I’ve been stripping wallpaper all day.’

‘Loungewear,’ echoed June, looking Kerry up and down. ‘Well, I do like the sound of that. It looks ever so cosy.’

Kerry pointed to my bags. ‘Just home, Edie? Bet you can’t wait to get inside and offload that little lot.’

‘I must get inside too. I have Stanley’s liver in here,’ said June, holding up a Co-op carrier bag.

‘I expect he’ll be wanting that back!’ I exclaimed, laughing.

‘Oh my goodness, it’s not Stanley’s liver, dear,’ she replied, at first horrified and then reaching out with kindly pity and touching my hand. ‘It’s from the butchers – where they sell meat,’ she added helpfully, clearly now doubting my grasp of the basics.

‘Yes, I was just—’ I began, but she didn’t pause for breath.

‘Stanley’s slightly under the weather, so the iron will do him good.’

‘Ah, wish him well from us,’ said Kerry, as June turned to cross the road. ‘Let us know if you need anything.’

‘Will do!’

Kerry watched until June was safely up her steps and inside and then turned back to me. ‘Long day?’ she asked.

‘They’re all long,’ I said. ‘But I love it, so no complaints. How about you? Is there much more scraping to be done?’