Penny turned towards him. ‘Now then . . .’ Penny waited until she had Jack’s full attention. ‘Maggie is at the hospital with Regina . . . she left the car for you. Join them if you can but, if you don’t have time, she’ll need a lift back at least. Regina went into very early labour. The baby was breech to begin with . . . upside down.’ Jack nodded. ‘Now, this is no one’s fault really; well, it might have been, I don’t know, because Regina was being seen by a junior doctor and they . . .’ Penny looked annoyed with herself and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. ‘I can’t remember the bloody name . . . Ah, right, so, the junior doctor used forceps, and doing that, they think, has caused bilateral Erb’s palsy. That’s damage to the nerves in the shoulder. So, the poor little mite is in a bit of a state at the moment. Oh, and she might be deaf, but they won’t know for a while. She’s in an incubator for the foreseeable.’ Having finally managed to deliver the terrible news about Regina’s new baby, Penny gratefully snapped back into grandma mode. ‘Bath time! You carry her up. Then I’ll put her down and you can go to the hospital if that’s your plan. Visiting starts at six.’

It took a while for Jack to trust that the little seat in the baby bath was capable of supporting Hannah without his help – and he was even more sceptical when Penny said that he could pour the water over Hannah’s face and she wouldn’t mind. But once he relaxed and realised that both he and his daughter would be fine, he began to enjoy bath time. He waved a plastic boat in front of Hannah, then he waved a fish and made a popping sound with his lips, then finally waved an octopus and made a clicking noise.

Penny suddenly howled with laughter as a memory popped into her head. ‘That’s from your dad!’ she laughed. ‘He didn’t know what noise an octopus made either, so he clicked and thought, that’ll do. I’d forgotten all about that. He could tell you anything and you’d believe him. That’s why he never lied to you about important things.’

The phone rang just in time to save Penny from another spontaneous crying session. They were far less frequent these days; but the grief still surprised her every now and then.

From the bathroom, Jack heard her tell ‘Simon’ that Jack was busy bathing Hannah, but that he’d return the call as soon as they’d finished. Jack gently chastised his mum when she returned, saying that Ridley was his boss and had every right to ask to speak to Jack during the working day, but he couldn’t help smiling nonetheless.

*