‘Well, I don’t know if he’s her boyfriend yet, but she likes him. Hasn’t she mentioned it?’

Rory shook her head. A boy? Belle had never shown an interest in boys before. And why hadn’t she mentioned him? They told each other everything.

‘We haven’t really seen each other much this week. I’ve been busy with the first week of term and she’s been at Fiona’s a lot.’

‘Well, there is a boy on the horizon. Things are going to change. You’ve had it easy with her up until now. I certainly didn’t have such an easy ride mothering through your teenage years. You were a nightmare. Every time I told you not to do something, it would be the exact thing that you would set out to do. It didn’t help that your dad indulged you so much. He was almost proud of your devil-may-care attitude. It wasn’t him that had to go up to the school every time you’d broken another rule.’

Rory smiled. Her dad had let her get away with murder. She was grateful that Belle had not taken after her rebellious side. Belle had always been a good girl. Too good, sometimes. Someone could take advantage of her very easily. Rory needed to talk to her about this boy. Or should she wait for Belle to open up to her?

Sheila had changed the subject again. ‘Speaking of rules, one of the women at Seymour House – Flo – is trying to get a residents’ committee together so that we can make sure that everyone is behaving appropriately. I’ve never been one for committees myself. I learned my lesson after joining the PTA when you were at school. Endless evenings spent listening to other people prattle on about nothing. Some people have far too much time on their hands and some of them, like Flo, want to spend it telling other people what to do.’

Rory couldn’t agree more. She had managed to side swerve joining any ‘working groups’ at St Anthony’s or ‘parent consultation groups’ at Belle’s grammar school. Maybe she and her mother weren’t total opposites after all. ‘Why does she think you need to keep an eye on residents’ behaviour?’

Sheila leaned forward and lowered her voice. ‘Well. Barb – she of the dangly earrings and fluffy slippers – has some conspiracy theory that Flo wants to curtail her “activities”. Flo doesn’t like it when Barb has gentlemen coming to visit her; she thinks it’s dangerous for her to bring unknown men into the building. Barb thinks Flo shouldn’t worry.