‘Poor you,’ Hannah joked. ‘Let’s get cereal bars and fruit, juice, milk, tea and coffee.’ Not certain what shape the week would take, she added bread, ham, cheese, salad and soup. It felt very domesticated to be shopping with two children in tow. At the checkout she stepped back to let a very pregnant lady go ahead of her and helped load the till belt to save her having to bend over her considerable bump. Must be funny to be pregnant, she found herself thinking. All that waiting. Wondering. Then, at the end of the waiting, suddenly there was a Josie or a Maria. Her mind strayed to Loren, who’d given birth to these bright, lovely girls. If she ever had children she’d fight through anything to keep them with her, she decided. Then she brought herself up sharply, realising that she’d never experienced what Loren was going through so had no right to judge.

They’d been home half an hour when Nico returned, subdued, though he smiled for the children. ‘I saw Dad for twenty minutes,’ he reported to Hannah in a low voice. ‘He gets his angiogram results tomorrow. He’s pretty tired and looks—’ he paused to select the right word ‘—colourless.’ He sighed. ‘Do you mind if we get straight off to Mum’s? It sounds as if she’s gone to a lot of trouble and my great-aunts, Astrid and Ellen, will be there, along with Ida, my cousin Emelie’s mum, and a couple of male cousins of Mum’s who go wherever there’s free nosh. Mattias and Felicia have gone straight there.’

‘Sure.’ Hannah gave him an impulsive hug. ‘Try not to worry about your dad. He’s in good hands.’ When she saw an answering gleam in his eye she blushed, realising a comforting hug was different to a hug hello or goodbye. Maybe she was getting too deeply into this family role. It was as if she thought she was a wife.

In the event, they didn’t stay late at Carina’s. Mattias proved prickly and moody, Felicia casting him anxious looks. Nico was quiet too. His great-aunts Astrid and Ellen had identical grey wavy hair and called Nico ‘Nicke’ explaining to Hannah with evident delight that ‘Nico’ was a German name. Nicke was Swedish. Nico just smiled but Carina retorted that she was entitled to give her sons any names she pleased, Germanic or not. It appeared to be a family discussion of long standing. Carina’s male cousins ate and drank stolidly, and though Ida, who was Lars’s brother’s ex-wife, was a chatty, homely lady, Hannah concluded it was a gathering to get all the hospitality owed to peripheral family over with at one time.