SEBASTIAN: Naturally, I felt really really annoyed with my mother. She was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was Nina, and the Pakistani Muslim woman, and even a nun. Clearly, it was the Bosnian nun my brothers had been complaining about. Plus the Pakistani woman – she who was Zoe’s so-called tutor. Immediately, the nun came over and started talking to me. She went on and on about a quince tree that grew near the grave of the photographer Mevludin in Sarajevo. Told me in a completely crazy way how Mevludin’s daughter-in-law’s visits to the Sarajevo cemetery would increase tenfold in the autumn when the tree was fruiting. She would return to their apartment on (some unpronounceable Bosnian street), her pockets bulging, and when the nun and her schoolfriend (another unspellable Bosnian name) got home from school, the whole flat, dining room, sitting room, his bedroom, kitchen, hallway, stairwell were all infused with the sweet smell of stewing fruit. I realised that my brothers had been right all along. Our mother must have become very eccentric to tolerate these people. When I told my brothers that night, they went apeshit. Said we should get her examined. But by then I was too busy with all the CWEN stuff to think about Mother.

Throughout this ordeal, with the nun, and the Muslim, and the mother of his firstborn, Sebastian remained his usual composed and gracious self. His good breeding was such that he displayed neither discomfort nor embarrassment. He did clock the arrival of the other car – wondered if it was his mother, at last – but instead it was a woman called Alice, who explained that Eva was busy but had asked her, Alice, to come to the house and make coffee for everyone? Having posed for several pictures in the garden, Seb said he would wait outside with Alice, while the photographer and his assistant had a quick look round the house. They wanted to set up three or four interior shots, at least, the centrepiece being in front of the Burne-Jones, as discussed. Sebastian looked from the women dancing to the crescent moon in the sky, and back at Alice, who was apparently the only sane one.