‘Oh, she’s just jealous.’

‘Mind you, Simon did mention that he’d been to a concert at the Town Hall the other night, and she gave me such a look because she must have guessed I went as well. And we’re going to the Hippodrome on Saturday.’

‘You lucky thing,’ Ann said good-naturedly. ‘He’s quite a classy number, isn’t he?’ Still, so are you, so there you go. Gordon’s more of a one for going down the pub and a game of darts. And we have to go to his mom’s a lot ’cause she’s not very well. She’s all right, though, Mrs T. I get on with her. I need to, don’t I? She might be my mother-in-law one day. What about your mother: doesn’t she mind you gadding about?’

‘Well, she makes remarks sometimes,’ Katie said. ‘But I think she’s decided there’s nothing she can do about it.’

‘Well, that’s good,’ Ann said. ‘’Bout time.’

It was good to sit and chat with Ann, and Katie felt herself relax gradually, her mind distracted from the subject she was obsessed with. But as soon as they parted and Katie was walking along New Street towards the bus stop, she felt terror clasp her innards again like a freezing cold hand.

The thought was never far from her mind and her certainty grew. What Ann had said, other bits of information she picked up – she had even been to the library and looked up in a medical book – and the strange, different way she was feeling, all added up. She covered it up from everyone else, but by the time it was high summer she had missed two periods and looked like missing a third, so there was no getting away from it. She had a baby on the way.

The first time she actually allowed herself to say it, she was in the bath at Simon’s house. It was a warm July day and they had been out for a walk. Katie felt hot and sticky, but more than that, she needed to be alone. Amid all Simon’s cheerful chatter about life in general, the war and golf and his plans for the future – which she couldn’t help noticing, more and more, did not seem to involve marriage, or her, or was she being over-sensitive? – she was finding it very hard to keep talking and smiling as if there was nothing wrong.

‘BB, would it be all right if I had a quick bath?’ she said when they got back to Kings Heath. ‘I just feel a bit hot and uncomfortable.’

In the hall he put his arm around her and waggled his eyebrows suggestively. ‘Of course it would. The idea of you being all warm and soft from the bath is absolutely delicious to a Bear like me. I’ll be waiting for you. Want a cup of tea?’

She was about to say no, because now tea tasted odd to her too, but she gave a faint smile and said, ‘Yes, that’d be nice. Thanks.’