‘I’ll be there in a moment, son. Put this back for me, will you?’

He handed him the cellphone and Bobby disappeared.

‘I’m glad you got rid of that man,’ Corinne said. ‘I don’t like him.’

‘Have you met Mark? Oh, yes, he came to the house once.’

‘Horrible man.’

‘I suppose he reminds you of me,’ Alex said wryly.

‘Not really. You were always full of fire and enthusiasm. It lit you up inside, and it was exciting. I remember once you got out of bed at one in the morning to work out some brilliant idea. Your eyes were shining and your voice had an edge, as though you’d seen a vision. I never knew what you were going to do next. But Mark Dunsford is a robot. He never had an original thought in his life, and he’s trying to make his name by standing on your shoulders. You should watch out for him.’

The same thought had occasionally occurred to him. Now he marvelled at the shrewdness that had shown Corinne so much in one brief meeting.

‘That must be the first time you’ve said anything good about me and the business,’ he observed.

‘I grew to hate it because it always came first-before me, before the kids.’

‘You never understood how driven I felt.’

‘You’re wrong. I saw you being driven all the time. At first, like I say, it was exciting, but later I saw what it did to you. I used to dream that there’d come a time when you could ease up, but of course there never did, and it went on and on, getting worse and worse.’

He gave a mirthless grunt of laughter.

‘Funny! I thought of it as getting better and better, because I could provide for you properly. A nice house, holidays-’

‘Half of which we ended up taking alone,’ she reminded him. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’

‘But can’t you-?’

She stopped him hurriedly. ‘Alex, it’s all right. It’s finished. It doesn’t matter any more. Let’s leave it.’

The washing-up was done. Alex looked up at the sprig of mistletoe that Jimmy had fixed overhead.