Nico glanced her way, suspecting from her economy of speech that he was on her shit list for asking her to do extra work. ‘Hey.’ He hesitated, revisiting his plan to have Tilly look after both girls after Josie finished school so he could get a few hours’ work done each day. He was anxious about Josie. The bleak expression on her face. The depth of her back-to-school blues.

He’d told Anders that he’d try and get a bit done while he was at home this week but suddenly he rebelled. He was entitled to spend his annual leave how he pleased. His companionship was what his daughter needed right now and he was going to give it to her.

Tilly was watching him from the corner of her eye and he had the feeling she was waiting for him to be conciliatory for what she obviously saw as asking too much of her. Instead, some of the resentment he’d been feeling found an outlet. ‘About looking after both girls,’ he began genially enough.

She cut in with the air of one who felt herself to have the high ground. ‘It’s just that our agreement is that you give me plenty of notice about extra work. Extra children are extra work, additional money or not.’ She pulled off her coat.

‘You’re right.’ Nettled, he started to collect up breakfast bowls. ‘And I didn’t appreciate that your gardening work’s so important that you couldn’t offer me even a few additional hours. But I need childcare for Maria so I’ve taken the week off.’

Tilly’s expression became a little less victorious. She halted, one arm still in her coat. ‘What does that mean for me?’

‘I’ll pay you for this morning, though you can go straight away as I’m going to take Josie to school, and then I won’t need you for the rest of the week.’ He swilled the bowls and stacked them in the dishwasher. Tilly had offered zero flexibility and there were consequences to that. He wasn’t in the mood to butter her up with repeated apologies and greater offers of financial recompense. Recently, she’d started to try and score over him as if she was a diva girlfriend, not his paid nanny. He wiped down the breakfast bar. ‘You’ll be able to do lots of gardening.’

‘But it’s dark before four,’ she said uncertainly. ‘I said I’d have both girls after school. You’ve given me no notice of this either.’