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‘I don’t see that, Dan.’
    Daniel leant forward. He had not only rehearsed what he would say, but he had assured Cara that his whole approach would be as anodyne as possible. He said carefully, ‘She hasn’t got the time to give to another house. She can’t manage another commitment. I mean, when would she live there?’
    Jasper smiled at him. ‘When she’s in Stoke.’
    ‘But she stays with Grace.’
    ‘Grace has a boyfriend.’
    ‘He doesn’t live with her.’
    Jasper’s smile grew broader. ‘You won’t provoke me, mate. If Susie wants this cottage, because of her grandfather and her childhood and all that, she should have it. She’s got bags of energy. She could run a dozen houses.’
    Daniel put the piece of croissant into his mouth and chewed. After a few moments, he said, ‘She’s amazing.’
    Jasper said equably, ‘You won’t get round me that way, Dan.’
    Daniel shifted to hunch over the table and his coffee. He tried to remember what he had rehearsed, on the way to Radipole Road.
    ‘Jas—’
    ‘Yes?’
    ‘It … isn’t really about this house. Or, at least, the house is only a symptom.’
    ‘Shouldn’t you be saying this to Susie, not to me?’
    Daniel glanced at him. He said impulsively, ‘Actually, I was just looking for a steer.’
    ‘I can’t promise anything.’
    ‘I know, I know,’ Daniel said, suddenly vehement. ‘But as we all live off this company, what happens to it affects all of us, including you, however much you try to avoid responsibility.’
    There was a sudden, highly charged silence. Then Jasper said, in the tone of one abruptly faced with unreasonableness, ‘Hey, steady on.’
    Daniel said nothing. A decade in the Moran family had taught him that Jasper would do anything to avoid a confrontation. So, after a pause and in a much lighter tone, he said, ‘Can I explain the situation to you – the situation as I see it?’
    Jasper looked relieved. He nodded.
    ‘When I joined this company,’ Daniel said, ‘it’s no exaggeration to say that Susie thought she didn’t have the wherewithal to get bigger. She had too many products, she was only making things to order on a three-month lead, the shop was a random mess and the customers didn’t know where they were. And also – also, Jasper – she was using any profit she made to offset losses from previous years. Well, look at us now.’
    Jasper sighed faintly. He picked up his spectacles and blew on the lenses.
    Dan said, ‘You know where we are now. You know that when Cara and I joined, you could see visible signs of growth within a year. We go in for classic retail thinking, we’re always asking ourselves how we can exploit something thatsells. We have grown this company to five times its size in ten years. And we’re on a three-year mission to get us to a turnover of £20 million. Are you with me?’
    Jasper nodded. He was holding his spectacles out at arm’s length and squinting through them.
    ‘Of course,’ Daniel continued, ‘I don’t want it to be twenty. I want it to be thirty. So does Cara. So does Ashley. So would Grace, if she thought about it. We all believe in the product. We are all committed to Susie’s vision.’
    He stopped. There was another short silence, and then Jasper said quietly, ‘But?’
    ‘But, Jas, Susie has to acknowledge what she doesn’t know. She has to learn to defer on some things.’
    Jasper’s gaze swung round to his son-in-law, and rested there. He said levelly, ‘Does she now?’
    ‘If she would delegate more, she would achieve more.’
    ‘Ah.’
    ‘She has to lose some control to gain more. She has to allow the next fuse not necessarily to be lit by her.’
    Jasper got up and crossed the kitchen to an enormous birdcage by the French windows to the garden. The parrot inside, a yellow-eyed African Grey called Polynesia, sidled along her perch so that she could croon at Jasper through the bars. He put a finger out and scratched the top of her