Something about those words haunted Alex painfully.

He could spare us that, couldn’t he?

Was that how Bobby saw his father? Doling out his time in small, begrudged amounts?

He did not want to go inside the house.

Cowardice. The weakness he had always despised most.

With sudden decision, he got out of the car. In the porch he hunted for the key that Corinne had left out for him, hearing sounds inside the house. There was her voice.

‘Bobby, what are you doing in the hall?’

‘Nothing, Mummy.’

‘Come and have an iced bun.’ That was Mitzi, a little more distant, sounding as if her mouth was full.

‘In a minute,’ Bobby replied. His voice still came from the hall.

Then Corinne’s voice.

‘Darling, why are you watching the front door?’

Suddenly, as though a spotlight had come on inside him, he saw his son’s face, staring at the front door with painful intensity, not daring to believe.

He didn’t know where that light had come from, except that it had something to do with his talk with Bobby. It lit all the world from a new angle, showing what had always been there, but which he’d never noticed.

He turned the key.

‘Daddy!’

The ear-splitting shriek came from Mitzi. Corinne was standing by the kitchen door, watching his arrival with pleasure. Only Bobby did not react. He stood completely still, his face a mask of total and utter disbelief.

Alex wanted to cry out, But I promised you. You knew I was coming. Instead, he concentrated on hugging his daughter, who was almost strangling him with the exuberance of her embrace.

‘Hello, darling,’ he said.

‘Daddy, Daddy,’ she carolled.

‘Hey, don’t choke me,’ he said, laughing. ‘How’s my girl?’