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that’s all that matters, but a child-like voice at the back of her mind was saying, But now there’s no one to love and care for you, is there? Just like May.
    Later that evening, when the kids had been collected from next door, bathed and tucked up – Sam now in the spare room next to hers with his toy cars ranged along the windowsill in a nose-to-tail traffic jam and Cara in a collapsible lobster-pot cot at the foot of her bed – Rosie gave Corinne a call.
    ‘Hello, you, how’s it going in the wilds of the North?’ Corinne said. ‘Everything good?’
    ‘Pretty much. The kids are fine. My neighbour’s nice. I’ve been to see May too; she’s a bit of a character …’
    ‘And? Something’s bothering you.’
    ‘Well, it’s silly really, but this odd child turned up and it’s freaking me out. She was in the garden and then by the time I went out there she’d gone and I couldn’t work out how she got in.’
    ‘How old was she?’
    ‘I don’t know, maybe eight, nine?’
    ‘Not likely to mean any harm then; maybe she’s just curious about who’s moved in? Wants to see if there’s anyone new to play with.’
    ‘Maybe … but today I think she came into the house.’
    ‘How do you mean, you think she did? You didn’t see her then?’
    ‘No, just heard footsteps on the stairs, at least I think there were.’
    There was a pause. ‘You probably imagined it. Old houses are always full of funny noises, and you’re bound to be all on edge in a new place and with the trial of sorting your mum’s stuff out ahead of you. It probably makes you a bit … well … jumpy. You know how you can get when you’re overwrought.’
    ‘I suppose. But May reckons she comes in the house and steals things.’
    ‘Yeah, all the things she finds later under the bed or down the side of the sofa.’ Corinne giggled. ‘Come on, you’re not going to let yourself get spooked by the wanderings of a batty aunt?’
    ‘No – no, I’m fine.’ Rosie let it go. Corinne had a point; May was in the home exactly because of such irrational imaginings. ‘How about you?’
    ‘Well, I’ve just heard that the school isn’t renewing my contract this year.’
    ‘Oh no! Why not? They can’t do that two weeks before the start of term, surely?’
    ‘To be honest, I thought this might happen.They’ve been wanting to make cuts in the department for ages. Actually, I’m not that bothered.’
    ‘How do you mean? What’s going on?’
    There was a pause in which Rosie sensed a suppressed excitement. ‘I wasn’t going to tell anyone until I’d told my parents, but what the hell, they aren’t to know if I tell you.’
    ‘What? Tell me!’
    ‘Luc asked me to marry him.’
    Rosie let out a squeal. ‘Corinne! That’s wonderful! I’m so happy for you. When? How?’
    ‘I went over at the weekend and we had one of those deep conversations. We’re both hating being apart … and he’d been scouting around for a job for me. He’d made a contact who works in an agency placing language teachers in foreign companies whose managers need to improve their business French …’
    Rosie swallowed hard. ‘So you’re going back to Paris; he’s not coming over here?’
    ‘It makes more sense this way. His job pays more than mine; our families are there—’ Corinne broke off. ‘Oh God, I’m sorry, that was tactless.’
    ‘No,’ Rosie said firmly, although the thought of Streatham without Corinne was bleak. ‘It’ll be lovely for you to have family nearby. What kind of a friend wouldn’t be glad for you? And I am – really.’ She stopped herself from saying, ‘When do you have to go?’ She had no right to sound disappointed; after all, when she’d told Corinne she was upping sticks to Northamptonshire for a while, Corinne had understood that she had to do it and had never once moaned. She reframed the question and put a cheerfulness into her voice. ‘How soon will you be able to go?’
    ‘I’ve already started packing,’