Far too wide awake now to be able to go back to sleep, she lay in bed for a while, mentally placing the pictures and wondering if it would be worth disturbing the puppies to make a cup of tea. If she went down, they’d all think it was morning. She’d have to heat milk and give them Weetabix, and take them out into the garden. If it had been four or five, Thea would have done this to get a head start on the day. But it was only half past one.

Eventually she decided she’d never get back to sleep if she just lay there, listening to the news on the World Service. She got up, braved the puppies and took a cup of tea back up to bed. Typically, it was half past five when she finally dozed off.

Dragging herself out of bed at seven, Thea felt terribly groggy and short of sleep, but knowing there were hungry pups, lakes of wee and piles of poo awaiting her, she pulled on her dressing gown and threw herself in the direction of the stairs.

If only she’d put on shoes. She put her foot in a puppy poo the moment she opened the kitchen door. She swayed about for a moment or two, debating whether to scoop up newspapers and deal with the other poos first, and then try and hike her foot into the sink in the scullery, or vice versa. It was the thought of balancing on one leg after so few hours of sleep that unnerved her, but then again, walking about with poo between the toes was worse than unnerving. She limped to the sink.

When her foot was at last clean, she emptied out her Wellingtons and put them on. By the time the kitchen floor was swabbed, all the puppies had raced around the tiny garden for a bit and had eaten their breakfast, she realised that there was a definite bubble of cheerfulness developing within her. She would hold Rory to his promise, and if she had to threaten to cut his pictures into pieces and send them to him bit by bit, she would do it.

‘I can’t understand it! Ben definitely said that Rory couldn’t show with you because Veronica would use all her influence to ruin him!’

Thea tucked the phone under her chin and picked up a puppy. ‘Rory obviously felt differently. Perhaps he’s not as frightened of Veronica as Ben is.’

The sarcasm floated past Molly. ‘Oh, Ben’s not frightened of her. But he has had to fight hard to keep on good terms with her for Toby’s sake.’

Thea sighed, her broken night suddenly catching up with her. ‘Well, anyway,’ she said, ‘Rory is showing with us, so we can get back on track and organise it all.’

‘He can’t change his mind again, can he?’