Parvez sat for a moment, remembering when he had got off the plane with woefully insufficient funds, still in his wedding suit, with no plans beyond getting to his cousin’s sweet shop in Tooting. Back then, he had been dismayed into silence by a cab driver’s reaction to his accent. And yet here they were, Omar in college, and Sharif at this big event, a thousand people waiting to hear him play. Perhaps things were different. ‘Did you want me to give you a lift to college next week, son?’

Omar smiled gratefully. ‘That would be great, Abbu. I’ll take you out for tea or something. My treat.’ Omar hesitated for a moment, before adding lightly, ‘Maybe you could stay and meet some of my …friends.’

Parvez understood what he meant, and shook his head. ‘I’m trying, Omar. I promise I’ll keep trying. But I’m not ready for that, not yet.’

Omar smiled to hide his disappointment. ‘It’s OK, Abbu. I understand.’

Shona and Dermot were sitting a little way away from the stage, where they had a good view of the screens. ‘He should have been on by now,’ she said impatiently.

‘He’ll be on soon enough,’ Dermot said soothingly, ‘Stop fretting, it’ll be fine.’

‘They’ve just never done anything like this before, this could be their big break …’ she said, and then paused as Dermot raised an eyebrow at her. ‘OK, I’ll stop fretting about the concert, and start fretting about afterwards, when we have to meet everyone in the pub.’

‘That’ll be fine, too,’ Dermot said. ‘Parvez has never been anything but civil to me; maybe he knows how puny and pale I feel standing next to him. And don’t forget that I practically saved your dad’s life, so he won’t be demanding pistols at dawn for breaching your honour.’ He pulled Shona towards him for a hug. ‘So how’s the baby bump?’ he said, patting her tummy.

‘Still barely bump,’ said Shona. ‘There’s nothing there at all. If I hadn’t had the scan I still wouldn’t have believed it. I was enormous with the boys at this stage. And with the boys, I was really sick, not just in the morning, almost all the time. But with this one I haven’t felt even the slightest bit ill,’she complained.

‘Isn’t not being ill meant to be a good thing?’ said Dermot affectionately. ‘I think they’re coming on.’