Free The Stranding by Karen Viggers

was so kind of you.’
    Lex arranged a polite smile on his face. His space felt severely invaded with all three of them sitting there looking at him so expectantly. He retreated to the kitchen to fill the kettle.
    ‘We don’t get many invitations to afternoon tea,’ Sally was saying. ‘In fact, we don’t get out that much, what with me being a single mother and all, with two kids.’
    There, the cards were on the table. She looked at him, appallingly hopeful.
    ‘Tea or coffee?’ Lex mumbled, dodging her eyes.
    ‘Do you have any juice?’ Sash asked, standing up on the couch then diving down again out of sight as her mother frowned at her.
    ‘There’s plenty of milk,’ Lex said. ‘Would you mind giving me a hand, Sash?’
    Sash skipped into the kitchen and Lex thought of Isabel. He felt his heart twist.
    Together, they poured milk into two plastic cups, which Sash carried carefully to the coffee table. She cantered back to fetch the plates. While Evan studied the whale-boat photos on the wall, Sally rocked herself out of her chair to bend over the cake and slice it with the knife Lex had laid on the table. She passed a plate to Lex, then to Sash and Evan, and sat down breathlessly. With her in it, the room felt small and awkward.
    The children devoured their cake and then bounced out of their chairs to explore the room and the rest of the house.
    ‘Lex,’ called Evan, ‘you’ve got a double bed in your room.’
    As if he didn’t know it.
    ‘Lex.’ This time it was Sash. ‘There’s a peacock in your backyard.’
    ‘Run outside and chase it away,’ he yelled back. ‘It belongs next door.’
    Better the child chase the bird than him, after last time.
    ‘There’s a map of the world in your toilet, Lex.’ Evan again.
    ‘And ten toilet rolls. I counted them. That’s a lot of toilet rolls.’ Sash, sounding very excited.
    Sally smiled apologetically between sips of tea. ‘They’re very young and enthusiastic. I can’t remember when I had that much energy. Can you?’
    Time had never moved so slowly. Sally smiled brightly at him, saying little, while the kids dashed around the house on a discovery mission. Eventually Sash came back and seated herself on his lap, as if she had always sat there. She didn’t seem to notice Lex stiffen with discomfort.
    ‘I like it here,’ she said. ‘It feels nice, and you have good things. Can we come again?’
    ‘It is a nice house,’ Sally said, hitching a ride on Sash’s conversation. ‘How do you feel about living here?’
    ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’ Lex said.
    ‘Oh, don’t you know about all the trouble this house caused?’ Sally looked uneasy. ‘There was quite an uproar over this place when the old man died. He left it to Beryl, but it should have gone to his family. Split the town, it did, Beryl getting the house.’
    Lex was quiet a moment. The real estate agent had told him nothing, and perhaps that was just as well. It wasn’t a comfortable feeling, knowing he was sitting on a disputed estate. The atmosphere in the room was awkward: Lex contemplating Sally’s revelation and Sally wishing she hadn’t told him.
    ‘Let’s go for a run on the beach,’ Lex suggested. Anything to get them out of the house.
    The kids rushed out the door.
    ‘Can Rusty come too?’ Sash looked up at him.
    ‘I assume that’s the dog,’ Lex said.
    As they walked down through the heath, Lex noticed Sally smiling with relief, as if some invisible hurdle of acceptance had been passed.
    He wished she had also noticed that he was cornered.
    •
    Lex wasn’t sure whether she forgot the platter on purpose, but the next day Sally was on his doorstep to collect it. She surprised him in his board shorts, bare-chested with a towel slung across his shoulders, about to head to the beach. There was interest and approval in her eyes, and here he was again, trying to find a way to escape.
    ‘I’m going for a swim,’ he said, handing over the platter and trying to