Mia’s mouth pinched in a way that a less indignant child would have spotted meant trouble. Jed, who’d learnt the hard way not to miss his wife’s body-language cues, stood up with a noisy scrape of his chair. ‘Come on, let’s go and play your new board game while the adults clear up breakfast.’

Daisy and Frankie had disappeared in the direction of the living room before Elana had time to huff out a pre-teen sigh.

‘Elana?’ Mia asked. ‘Are you playing the game or helping us in here?’

‘Fi-i-i-i-n-n-n-ne.’ She dumped her half-full bowl on the sink with a clatter. ‘I’ll leave you to talk about grown-up things that a little child like me can’t possibly understand and go and have fun as if my own great-grandmother isn’t lying in a hospital bed and probably going to die! You can fill me in on the PG version once you’ve made it up.’

Once it was clear that Elana’s angry thuds were heading up the stairs, not in the direction of the board game, Mia offered a hasty apology for leaving me with the mess and went to find her.

‘I’m so sorry,’ Henry said, pouring a mug of tea and handing it to me.

‘It’s not that big a mess.’ I helped myself to a croissant from a large plate in the middle of the table and added a blob of Mum’s home-made, sugar-free jam.

‘I meant Joy. It must be even harder when something like this happens at Christmas.’

I shrugged. ‘At least it means we’re all here.’

‘How long had you originally planned to stay?’ Henry sat down opposite me.

‘I’m back at work on the twenty-ninth, so was heading home tomorrow evening. Jed and Mia are nipping down south to visit her parents but then coming back to stay over on New Year’s Eve. It’s slightly ridiculous, given that they only live a mile away, but they seem to enjoy it.’ I took a bite of my pastry, which was warm and flaky and delicious, followed by a swig of tea to wash away the bitter aftertaste of the jam. ‘I’ll decide what I’m doing once we know more. It’s impossible to think straight at the moment. I shouldn’t really miss any more work, but if… well, if things are bad, I’d rather miss work than time with Nana Joy.’

‘Could you commute into work from here?’

‘I don’t have a car so getting there would be a nightmare. And hospital visiting times overlap with my work hours. I’d barely make it to see her in time even if I paid for a taxi.’

‘Could you swap shifts, given the circumstances?’