‘He couldn’t feel his pulse,’ Tess confided, reaching for my wrist and finding mine. ‘And Helena had popped out to do some secret shopping at Chanel while he had a nap, so he panicked. And you’d think he’d be so good at it by now, wouldn’t you? After all, he takes it twice a day. Ooh, Luce – yours is raging! Met someone already? Ned says you’ve got a hot lodger.’

‘Ignore them,’ Helena told me. ‘Ned called by this afternoon with some books he thought the girls might like. He just said he was nice.’

‘Actually, he’s neither,’ I told them. ‘He’s a rather surly Parisian. Well, English actually, but he was living in Paris until things went pear-shaped with his wife. And not bad-looking, I suppose.’

‘Doesn’t sound too terrible,’ Helena mused. ‘Not that you want anyone,’ she added quickly, seeing my face.

‘Ooh, that’s not what you said earlier,’ said Maudie. ‘To Ned. You said Lucy didn’t need a mourning period, given that the marriage was over long ago.’

‘Girls, I do wish you wouldn’t listen on the stairs to adult conversation. No good can ever come of it. Ned did say, though,’ she said, turning to me, ‘that you’re not writing. Is that right?’