Den shook his head. ‘Congratulations. That’s fantastic.’

It was also interesting, Marcella felt, that he clearly hadn’t been expecting it, which meant that Kerr McKinnon hadn’t warned him.

‘Shall I tell you something stupid?’ Den was smiling now, crookedly. ‘Before the accident, I used to wish you were my mother. I’d seen the way you were with your kids. I really envied them. I thought you were fantastic.’

Overcome, Marcella hugged him tightly. ‘Thank you. I hope I’ll carry on being fantastic. Now, let’s talk about your brother.’

‘Kerr?’ Den gave her a blank look. ‘What d’you want to know?’

He didn’t have a clue.

‘Kerr and Maddy,’ said Marcella.

Den gave her a doubtful look. ‘Your Maddy? Why, does she like him?’

‘Just a bit.’ Amused, Marcella realised that he was picturing Maddy as she had been eleven years ago with her metal braces, bony knees and those funny NHS specs. All in all, an unlikely contender for his brother’s attention.

‘Kerr hasn’t told you.’ As they turned and began to walk across the grass, Marcella tucked her arm companionably through Den’s. ‘Know where he is?’

‘What, right now? At work.’ Den looked surprised. ‘He’s lent me his car.’

‘Excellent. Posh one?’

‘Very posh,’ said Den.

‘Even more excellent. So,’ Marcella said brightly as another thought struck her, ‘does he know about me coming here today?’

Den shook his head. ‘I didn’t tell him. This was what I wanted to happen. He might have tried to talk me out of it.’

Almost certainly, Marcella thought with secret amusement.

As they headed for the car park – she really hoped Kerr’s was the gleaming midnight-blue Mercedes – Marcella said, ‘Why don’t we go and pay your brother a little visit?’

‘Now?’

She gave Den’s arm a complicit squeeze. ‘Right now. Come on, it’ll be a laugh.’

Realising what she was planning, Den said, ‘He’ll be scared witless when you walk in.’

‘But we’ll find it hilarious.’ Marcella broke into a dazzling, ear-to-ear grin. ‘Anyway, if your big brother’s serious about my darling daughter, he’s just going to have to get used to it.’

Blowing up several dozen balloons had taken it out of Maddy. She was exhausted, but the back garden of Snow Cottage was looking sensational enough for it all to be worthwhile. There were balloons at the front of the cottage too, along with a huge handmade Welcome Home banner and enough curly streamers to tie up an entire herd of wildebeest. Should a herd of wildebeest choose to stampede through Ashcombe.

‘Looking good,’ said Nuala, carrying out a pile of rugs and cushions.

‘Thanks.’ Maddy smiled.

‘Not you. You look appalling. I was talking about the garden,’ said Nuala. ‘Poor Tiff’s going to take one look at you and have a relapse. Go and put some make-up on or something, before everyone gets here.’

As if moving house and organising the party wasn’t enough, Maddy thought, she was expected to get creative with mascara too. And where was everyone else, anyway? Tiff was coming home from the hospital at three o’clock. Jake had driven into Bath to pick up Tiff and Juliet. Marcella had disappeared hours ago, blithely claiming that she needed to buy maternity knickers and promising faithfully to be back before three. Similarly, Kate and Dexter wouldn’t be over until after the pub was shut for the afternoon. Sophie had spent hours colouring in the Welcome Home banner. Bean had leaped about like a mini Tigger-on-springs, doing her best to burst the balloons as fast as they were inflated.

Quite a few other people from Ashcombe were coming along to the party but none of them had seen fit to offer anything in the way of practical help, evidently more than happy to leave all the boring hard work to her and Nuala.

And what exactly had Nuala done in the last couple of hours, apart from take a long hot shower, paint her toenails turquoise and spend a ridiculous amount of time faffing over what to wear?

‘I needed to shower,’ Nuala had protested when Maddy had pointed this out. ‘We moved house this morning! I had to wash all the dust off, didn’t I? For heaven’s sake, I was a complete mess.’

It hadn’t taken long to move house, and Jake had helped. Juliet and Tiff’s belongings had been brought over to Snow Cottage, and in return Maddy and Nuala had lugged their things over to the flat above the Peach Tree. It was like a neat chess move. Now that there were going to be three of them working in the deli itself, Maddy had resolved to increase the sandwich delivery side of the business. Last night she had designed a flyer to be printed and sent to businesses throughout the city.

Next week she planned to follow this up with visits to the various companies, taking along samples as she’d done with Callaghan and Fox. By this time next year, the Peach Tree delivery service could be a national, international, possibly even a global phenomenon .. .

Oh well, anything to take her mind off the disaster that was the rest of her life.

‘Go and have a shower this minute,’ Nuala bossily announced. ‘And do something with your hair. It’s got cobwebs in it.’

* * *

Den waited outside in the car while Marcella headed up the stairs to the offices of Callaghan and Fox. Entertaining though it would have been to witness in person Kerr having the living daylights scared out of him, Den’s presence would spoil the surprise.

Pushing through the swing doors into reception, Marcella’s eye was caught by the clock up on the wall. Ten to three. Back in Ashcombe everyone would be gathering at the cottage, getting ready to welcome Tiff home.

Anyway, never mind about that now.

Behind the desk, a plump girl looked up and smiled welcomingly at Marcella. ‘Hello there, can I help you?’

‘I hope so.’ Since Den had Kerr’s car, Marcella was rather counting on him being here. ‘I’d like a word with Kerr McKinnon.’

‘Do you have an appointment?’

‘No, but I’m sure he’ll see me.’ Primed by Den, Marcella peered down the corridor on the left.

‘Is that his office, along there?’

‘Er, why don’t I give him a buzz?’ Apologetically the receptionist said, ‘I’m not really supposed to let people in without an—’

‘I’m Maddy Harvey’s mum,’ Marcella confided. ‘Maddy from the Peach Tree. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.’

This captured the girl’s attention. Eagerly she leaned across the desk.

‘Is it about Kerr and Maddy? Oh, fantastic! Something’s going on between those two, isn’t it? I knew there was, I knew it, but Kerr just wouldn’t admit anything, and for the last few weeks he’s been so grumpy. Hang on.’ The receptionist faltered, belatedly taking in the fact that Marcella was black and Maddy wasn’t. ‘You can’t be Maddy’s mother ...’

Marcella said with pride, ‘I’ve been her mother since she was five years old.’

‘OK.’ Rising to her feet, the girl said, ‘You can go and see Kerr. But you have to let me come too.’

The door to his office was closed. The receptionist, having introduced herself as Sara, knocked and said, ‘Kerr, it’s me.’

From the other side of the door a male voice called out, ‘Come in,’ and Sara stepped to one side, gesturing to Marcella.

‘After you, Maddy’s mum.’

‘Why thank you so much.’ Marcella flashed a mischievous smile at her before opening the door.

Kerr McKinnon was sitting behind his desk talking into the phone. Better looking than his brother, Marcella judged;

then again, he hadn’t had to go through what Den had been through. Still, she could appreciate what Maddy saw in him.

In a purely dispassionate way, of course.

She watched the expression on Kerr’s face change as he realised who had just walked into his office. Unsmiling, Marcella stood there and regarded him in silence, exuding menace.

‘Er, sorry, I’ll have to call you back,’ Kerr muttered into the phone. Slowly he replaced the receiver. Marcella couldn’t see his hand shaking, but she wouldn’t mind betting he was quaking inside.

And now ... Oh, this was fantastic, the colour was actually draining from his face! If only she’d thought to bring a video camera.

The silence lengthened. It was like High Noon. Finally M a r c e l l a s p o k e .

‘Scared?’

‘Yes.’

‘Good. I’d hate to think I was losing my touch.’

A muscle flickered in Kerr’s jaw. ‘Does Maddy know you’re here?’

‘No.’

‘Right.’

‘Your brother does, though. He’s downstairs. We’ve just had a long chat,’ said Marcella.

‘Everything’s been sorted out. I went to see your mother this afternoon, too.’

‘You what?’ Kerr shook his head in disbelief. ‘She actually told you ... ?’

‘The whole story, but we don’t have time to go into that now. I’m sure you know how I feel about your mother. As for Den, well, I’m just glad the truth’s come out. Better late than never. Now, about you.’ Marcella paused to check her watch. ‘How do you feel about Maddy?’

Lost for words, Kerr said, ‘Er ... er ...’

‘Come on now, we don’t have all day.’ Marcella widened her eyes enquiringly at him. ‘Still interested? Or no longer interested, that was weeks ago, you’ve met someone else far better since then—’

‘Stop,’ Kerr said hurriedly. ‘Still interested.’

‘Good.’ Marcella’s expression softened.

‘I knew it.’ Behind her, Sara was triumphant. Nudging Marcella she said, ‘Didn’t I tell you?