A week later Shona was preparing for her first day of school for the autumn term. There would be no students there for the first two days; she was more worried about the reactions from her colleagues about the changed state of her relationship. Most of them would know by now that she had left Parvez, but few would realize that she had taken up with Dermot. No one knew that she was precariously carrying his child. She was putting all her administration in order when the bell rang insistently. She wasn’t expecting anyone; Omar had taken a summer job in the local adult education college above Sainsbury’s, to pay for his Ibiza holiday; Sharif - who had stopped pretending to work at the restaurant - was working flat out for a big concert that his band had been booked for at the end of September; and Dermot was at the school already, attending a meeting for all department heads. Perhaps it was Papa - maybe things were not going well with Verity, after she had finally found out the truth, and he needed his flat back. She went downstairs to open the door, and stopped short in shock. Standing on the steps, resplendent with her enormous Gucci sunglasses and a small mountain of matching leather luggage, was her mother, while a black cab with a ticking meter waited patiently behind her.

This is my daughter that I was telling you about,’ Henna said indulgently to the cab driver, in her still heavily accented English. ‘She’s a teacher, you know.’ She leaned over to Shona to peck her on her astounded cheek, whispering in her ear, ‘Shona moni, you had better pay the cab. I forgot to change my travellers’ cheques at the airport. And give him a tip so he can carry my things upstairs.’

Sitting decorously on the sofa, with a cup of tea in hand, and chewing on some shortbread she’d bought herself at the airport, Henna chatted amiably to Shona, as though their last conversation hadn’t happened, and as though her visit was completely expected.

‘It’s not a bad apartment, this,’ she said, looking around. ‘Your father always kept it very well. Too small, though. Much smaller than the place in Paddington that his company paid for. This used to be Verity’s flat, you know.’

‘No, I didn’t know,’ Shona said warily, sitting on the chair opposite her mother, waiting for Henna to explode at her. She decided to get it over with: ‘So, how … was the wedding?’