I wasn’t listening. If you don’t take this cheque – and pay it into your account – I will draw the money out in cash and deliver it to you in a briefcase. Then it will be on your head if the headlines read: MAD OLD BAT GETS MUGGED CARRYING FIFTY THOUSAND POUNDS. You are not the only stubborn woman in this family. That place is an absolute wreck. And if it hasn’t even got proper electrics,’ Sheila shuddered, ‘I will not sleep until you’ve got someone in to sort that out.’

‘I’ve contacted an electrician. I’m not stupid.’

‘Good. Then you can use some of this to pay for it. I am not arguing with you, Aurora. Sometimes you have to give in and accept help from somewhere.’ She sighed. ‘I do wish you had a man around to help with things.’

Well, that was guaranteed to get ‘Aurora’s’ back up.

‘How would a man help? I can do this on my own.’

‘It’s not as easy as all that. I know you think you just need to read a book about it and learn as you go along. But you can’t even knit, let alone decorate a whole house. And it isn’t as if you have lots of spare time on your hands. The amount of work you bring home every night: piles and piles of marking. Belle tells me you are up until midnight sometimes, trying to get it all done.’

Rory would kill Belle when she got home. She must have known that Sheila would give her a lecture about working too hard. There was no point getting into this with her mum. She should just accept the money for now and change the subject.

‘Okay, Mum, I’ll take the money. But I am going to put it into an account for emergencies only. If you need it back, it’ll be there.’

Sheila nodded. A compromise.

‘Speaking of Belle, she’s settled really well into college.’ Belle was always a safe bet to distract Sheila, who was nothing if not a proud grandmother.

‘I know! She popped in to see me. How lovely was that photograph of her on her ID card? She looks just like one of her princesses with those beautiful brown eyes of hers and all that hair. That’s one thing she can thank her father for; he always was a good-looking boy.’

Rory nodded. Belle had looked absolutely beautiful in her picture. Unlike Rory’s staff pass for St Anthony’s which looked like a picture from a ‘Don’t Take Drugs’ campaign. That’s what you got for not wearing make-up to work.

Sheila was gazing into the middle distance, reminiscing. ‘It doesn’t seem five minutes ago that she was click-clacking around the kitchen with my shoes and shawls on. Now she’s got a boyfriend.’

Rory coughed on her coffee. ‘A what?’

Sheila picked up the small jug and splashed the merest suggestion of milk into her cup.