Quickly, so she wouldn’t lose the blissful heat of the water, she laid the velvet curtains in the bath, wrapped herself in the sheet and pulled everything else on top of her. The pillow was blissful, the rest good enough. She slept.

‘Oh,’ said Toby. ‘I didn’t know there was anyone in here.’

Toby, in his pyjamas, was an endearing sight but also a little embarrassing. Thea didn’t want anyone to know she had slept in the bath. It was light and she looked at her watch: nine o’clock. As she hadn’t got into bed until nearly six, she wanted a few more hours’ sleep. ‘Hi, Toby, I’ll get out and let you have some privacy. Is Ben awake?’

‘No. I only am because I needed the loo. I’ll go back to sleep in a minute.’

Thea looked at him over the rim of the bath. ‘Toby, tell me if you hate this idea, but supposing I just lie back down here and shut my eyes. Could you still pee? Or would you be embarrassed?’

Toby bit his lip and thought. ‘That’ll be OK.’

Thea burrowed down into her musty heap of cloth and went back to sleep.

*

She was woken again and realised Susan had let herself in the back door. It was eleven o’clock. There didn’t seem to be any indication that anyone else was stirring. She climbed out of the bath and wondered how to prevent Susan from knowing what it had been used for. She settled on piling up everything in the corner and getting it stuffed back into the airing cupboard while Susan was in the kitchen. She went to say hello. ‘Hi, Susan. Lara had her puppies last night.’

Susan’s expression was radiant. ‘Did she? How lovely? Where are they?’

‘In front of the fire in the sitting room. Not really a good idea, but where else would there be room?’

Lara banged her tail hard on the floor, pleased to have her puppies admired.

‘I told Rory he ought to be thinking about where she was to have them,’ said Susan. ‘They look so tiny, don’t they? I don’t suppose the father could have been very big.’

‘One still got stuck, though,’ said Thea and was about to tell Susan about Ben’s gallant midwifery when she remembered Susan didn’t yet know about Ben, or any of the others.

‘Look at that little one.’ Susan pointed to the runt. ‘I doubt he’ll survive long.’

Thea instantly felt tears prick her eyes. Short of sleep, she was in no mood to be adult and realistic about the chances of tiny puppies. Hopelessly sentimental, she wanted that puppy to live and thrive even more than all the others. ‘Are you sure?’ Susan was a country girl. She was bound to have experience of these little matters of life and death.

‘Not sure. But he is little and you should probably –’