Kate sat opposite her aunt. ‘He seems to be missing his sister, which is an even greater wonder. Is she all right? I texted her earlier and got no reply.’ Kate took a large slug of wine.

‘She’s fine. I imagine she’ll be home in a day or two. I sense the Jed exile might be wearing a bit thin for both of them . . . I’m not going to preach,’ Rose continued, ‘which would be incredibly tedious, but, my God, you look tired.’ Kate glanced at her aunt, whose gaze radiated concern. ‘Are you still on the sleeping pills?’

‘Yes.’

‘Zopiclone?’ Kate nodded. ‘Be careful,’ Rose went on, ‘they’re highly addictive.’

‘I know, I know. I’ll be fine. I won’t need one tonight. I’m dead beat.’ She took another slug of Pinot Grigio. ‘Did you have anxiety or depression?’

‘The one tends to lead to the other.’

‘Yes, I guess so.’

‘But mainly the former.’

‘About what exactly?’

‘I came to define my self-worth by my ability to become a mother. The more times I failed, the more anxious I got about never succeeding. But, as Dr Wiseman will already have told you, I’m sure, it’s rarely just one thing.’

Kate nodded. ‘You said you were very busy at work?’ The question was genuine: the Finance Department had always seemed to be a pretty sedate place.

‘It was in the period I was attached to Operations.’ Kate looked at her aunt, gobsmacked. Rose permitted herself a wry smile. ‘I know, I probably should have told you about it long ago.’

‘When – I mean, how long ago? Where? Doing what?’

‘I joined as a Finance trainee straight from university. But in those days you could opt to transfer to Operations for an attachment. The idea was to give those of us who were going to spend our lives bean-counting a sense of life at the sharp end. I guess it would have been ’ninety-two to ’ninety-six. Something like that. I was mostly working in Bosnia.’

‘With Sir Alan?’

‘Yes. And Ian at the tail end.’

Rose was staring into her wine as she swirled it in her glass, as if to conjure old memories.

‘How come you never told me about it? I feel embarrassed not to have known—’

‘I had my breakdown straight after that and had to take four months off work.’

‘Do you know what tipped you over the edge?’

‘Everything. Alan was mostly focused on Mladic and his Bosnian Serb friends. Ian took over from him. I came in and out, trying desperately to get pregnant in between and repeatedly miscarrying. I pushed myself far too far and was very stupid about it. I’m anxious you don’t do the same.’

‘So what did you do when you returned to work?’