Thirty minutes later, Maggie was one of four new mums on B Wing of the maternity ward. Families gathered, bringing tears, laughter, balloons, cards and babygrows. The ‘two visitors per bed’ rule was blatantly flouted – but there wasn’t a nurse in the hospital brave enough to make any relatives leave. Penny sat in a high-backed chair, with a pillow under her elbows and the baby in her arms. ‘She’s so interested in what the world has to offer,’ Penny whispered. ‘All the other babies are sleeping but look at ours . . . it’s like she wants to know what’s next.’ Jack always knew that Penny would be unable to stop herself from comparing her grandchild with every other baby; but he had done her the disservice of assuming that her comparisons would be silly. Now he found himself nodding at her words, feeling their rightness.

‘Do you have a name?’ Penny asked.

Months earlier, Jack and Maggie had each made a list of names and then compared to see how in tune they were. Maggie had gone a bit highbrow and literary with some, such as Orson and Agatha, while Jack, in contrast, had gone old-school, favouring names like Alfie and Alice. But there were several names common to both lists. ‘Charlie’ had been on both, of course, for a boy or a girl. Then there was James, Emily, William, Hannah, Max – and unexpectedly Elsie had appeared on both lists too. When Penny asked if they’d decided, the truth was that they hadn’t – but Jack now glanced at Maggie, giving her full permission to be the one to finally choose. ‘She looks like a Hannah,’ Maggie said.

Penny looked down at the sleeping little bundle in Maggie’s arms. ‘Hello, Hannah,’ she whispered. ‘You know, your name means “grace”. You’ve graced us with your presence, Hannah. That means you make us happy simply by being here.’

*

Over the next week, Penny went into overdrive with the cooking, cleaning and washing, while Maggie’s sole job was to keep Hannah happy. Jack’s job was to open all of the Amazon boxes and build whatever was inside. And Mario’s job was to design and create a woodland scene on the long wall of the nursery, using stickers that Maggie and Penny had chosen. They’d decided that Hannah should appreciate nature from a very early age, a decision that had come from reminiscing about living in Totnes. They had been so incredibly lucky to have had beaches and wilderness right on their doorstep. Growing up in London would be different for Hannah, but they still wanted her to learn about nature. And they’d take her back to Totnes when she was older, so she could see where she was truly from.