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Adam’s coming to pick me up and I need to get changed.’ She rushed noisily upstairs. Helen had seemed relaxed, but now suddenly Rex could see her face clenching with stress.
    He couldn’t get his breath. ‘Who is this Adam?’
    ‘He’s arranged to have my old clocks sold at auction. I told you I was thinking of selling them to raise money for the summerhouse, didn’t I?’ Helen’s frown was getting deeper, and for once, he thought she looked her age. ‘Excuse me a moment, Rex.’ He heard her footsteps running upstairs after Chloe.
    So Chloe had already found herself a boyfriend! Rex was shaking as he poured the rest of the beer into his glass. He’d waited too long! How could he have been so stupid as to do that? He could hear their voices now, Helen’s was raised in anger. It made him shrink back in his chair. He hated rows like this; they could tear a family apart. It seemed Helen was not happy about this boyfriend either.
    Rex was still trying to take in the implications when the doorbell rang. As the voices didn’t break off, he got up and went to open the front door.
    The handsome young man standing on the doorstep made his anxiety stab up another notch. ‘You must be Adam,’ he said. ‘I think you’re expected. You’d better come in, Chloe’s getting ready for you.’
    It was with a heavy heart that he led him into the kitchen. Adam sat down at the other side of the table on the chair Helen had vacated. Rex was able to study him. He was just the right age for Chloe, a personable young man with plenty of self-confidence and social chatter. Rex found it hard to respond suitably. Adam was his rival. And what a rival! It seemed to Rex very unlikely Chloe would toss Adam aside and turn to him. What a fool he was. Why had it never occurred to him that he might have competition?
    Chloe lost no time in getting away and taking Adam with her. Helen was clearly upset. Rex had the impression she was very much against the new boyfriend. He couldn’t trust himself to sit discussing Adam with her. He needed to be alone to think about this. He made his escape as soon as he could.
    He went home feeling cross with himself for letting this happen. He’d been telling himself it was his duty to wait until Chloe was old enough. He hadn’t recognised that he was waiting too long, that he was allowing another man to step in and take her. She was like quicksilver, full of energy and enthusiasm; he was too old and too slow for a girl like her, and this proved it.
     
    On the day her mother’s clocks were to be auctioned, Chloe took a half-day off work to go with her. Helen had been edgy with anticipation since breakfast time. Adam met them at the auction hall and escorted them to the seats he’d reserved. The place was buzzing with excitement.
    While the long-case clock was being sold, Chloe hung on to Adam’s hand and held her breath. The bidding went up and stopped; at what seemed the last moment, it went up further. It made considerably more than Adam had offered for it, though not as much as the figure quoted in the price guide. On her other side, her mother was all smiles to have some of the money for her summerhouse, but it left Chloe wondering.
    ‘It made more than you wanted to give us,’ she said to Adam, hoping she didn’t sound suspicious.
    He laughed. ‘I knew it would,’ he said easily. ‘That’s how the trade works. The person who wants the clock to furnish his house is the one who is prepared to pay the most for it. But he expects it to be in good repair, polished up and delivered to his door. I sometimes work on a piece, or arrange for the work to be done.
    ‘If you buy from a fancy antique shop, you’ll pay more than if you bid for it at auction, for much the same reason. The shop owner will have put it in working condition and the customer doesn’t have to hang about at the auction house waiting for the piece to come up for sale. Dealers like me make our living from these price differences;