‘Maggie, listen, I just wanted to say – if that invitation still stands – I’d love to come with you tonight. Unless you’ve changed your mind?’

‘Oh,’ I said foolishly. Slowly the world slid out from beneath its enormous storm-cloud. ‘No, of course not. But we’re about to leave.’

‘I was thinking – I could get the Heathrow Express from Paddington, if you like, and meet you at the airport. Would that work?’

‘Yes,’ I grinned. ‘That’s a great idea.’

‘Blimey,’ said Bel, marching down the hall with the trembling Cagney and Lacey in her arms. ‘You look like the Cheshire cat.’ She peered at me. ‘Have you just eaten the White Rabbit?’

The M4 was heavy with Friday-night traffic, and I was heavy with foreboding. I hadn’t been on this road since the coach crash and I was struggling with the memories now. We weaved slowly between row after row of fat four-by-fours driven by complacent second-homers with double-chins and stripy shirts, until a lorry lost its load of feathers in front of us and everything ground to a complete halt in a bizarre snowstorm of goose-down. By the time we reached the terminal, Bel was almost out of time to check in.

‘For God’s sake,’ she hissed as fluorescent-jacketed officials waved us on each time we tried to set down, ‘do we look like Jihadists?’

When I finally pulled up, Johnno leapt out, piling bags onto a trolley as Bel necked yet another Valium behind his back. ‘If I have any more of these, I’ll overdose,’ she muttered.

Hannah clutched her Barbie rucksack, a mini-Bel under the bright airport lights. ‘Aren’t you coming, Auntie Maggie?’ Her eyes were huge and owlish.

‘Not now, darling, no.’ I smiled cheerfully, but inside I felt like howling.

‘Why not?’ Her bottom lip quivered.

‘I’ll be out to see you really, really soon, I promise. And, look, hang on a sec.’ I delved in my bag for the book I’d bought Hannah for the plane. She ripped the wrapping off in a flurry of excitement.   ‘Little Red Riding Good,’ she read carefully, ‘and other Tales. Did Riding Good have a tail?’

‘Red Riding Hood.’ I swept her up into a big hug. ‘She didn’t have a tail, but the wolf did.’

Hannah looked worried. ‘There are no wolves in Austria, are there?’

‘Australia. No, of course not.’ I kissed her soft little cheeks; I didn’t want to let her go. ‘Just lots of koala bears.’

‘It’s you who should be watching out for wolves, young lady, now I’m not going to be around,’ Bel said rather primly, fluffing up her hair in the car window. ‘Don’t rush into anything on the rebound, okay? You know, I’m sure there’s something I needed to tell you, Mag. I just can’t for the life of –’