It took him time to write the e-mail. He had always found it difficult to admit that he was wrong about anything, let alone his own family, and he had never been that eloquent with the written word. He wasn’t entirely content with the final draft, but nevertheless sent it off to Jackie’s home e-mail address, hoping that she would get to read it before she went to meet the girls the following morning.

He still had twenty minutes to kill before Josh was due to come to pick him up, so he went onto the Internet and opened up his own mail server to see if he had any unread e-mails. There were two. The first was from Nick Jessop, giving him the latest news on how he was surviving in his new job with Broughton’s.

“Things are not the same, Dan,” he wrote. “Everything has changed since 9/11. The fun seems to have gone out of the City. I sometimes wonder if I wouldn’t have been better just trying to get that idea of the child’s car seat off the ground. At least if I had done that, I’d have been able to spend more time with Tarquin.”

The rest of the e-mail was a running commentary on the successes of Chelsea Football Club that season. Dan wrote only a few words in reply.

“Stick to what you’re doing. Tarquin will be the winner in the long run. Anyway, you would only be spending time with him in hospital if you went ahead with that damned car seat! Turning into a wild Scotsman up here. You won’t be able to understand a word I say when I get back! Dan.”

The other e-mail was from Debbie Leishman in New York.

“Dear Dan,” she wrote. “I really don’t know how I can thank you for continuing to be such a wonderful friend. Without your support, I could never have afforded to stay off work so long with the baby. He continues to do well, and very soon I shall send you a real long update on how he is progressing and a photograph so that you can see for yourself just how like his daddy he is turning out to be. I still have wonderful memories of that weekend we had up in Maine. Oh, that we could wind back the clock and make it all happen over again. With my love, as always, Debbie.” He wrote back, “Dear Debbie, thanks for your e-mail. Don’t give the money another thought. I’m so glad that the baby’s doing well. I’ll look forward to getting the progress report and the photograph. Remember to get in touch whenever you want. With love, Dan.”