Ruthie said, “I was so worried about you. Both of you. What a nightmare. I can’t tell you how glad I am that you got them back so quickly, but still. Lauren, I would have been a complete mess, if it were me. I would have been even worse—” She halted abruptly, with a little sound that indicated she thought she’d gone too far. “Not that you were …”

“Don’t worry, Ruthie, she knows what you meant.”

Patrick tucked a springy coil of Lauren’s hair back into the puffball of her ponytail. She complained about the hair but it had excellent qualities. You could mould it into a shape and it stayed. Plaits needed no binding on the ends. She liked it that Patrick loved playing with it as they watched films together, or he used to, before there was no time in their lives to watch films. He would divide the hair into two and twist it until it became two large horns that curled up and met above her head. She’d thought it was funny, when she looked in the mirror afterwards. The memory saddened her.

“You look better today though,” said Patrick, “not so pale.”

“I got loads of sleep, that’s what it is,” said Lauren. “They’ve been looking after the babies in the nursery overnight. It’s the first time I’ve had more than two hours straight since they were born. I feel like a new woman.”

“Was it hard being away from them?” said Ruthie. “After what happened, I mean.”

No, she thought, it was sweet relief to have the things in a separate room. But yes, it was hard being away from Morgan and Riley. She felt like something had been ripped from her heart, and that her life was draining away through the open wound with every passing second.

“Yes,” said Lauren, “being away from them is torture. But they gave me something to help, you know, a little pill.”

Patrick said, “The doctor says you’ve made progress. She says there’s a chance you won’t need to stay much beyond the three days, if you carry on the same way.”

“She said that to you? That they would let me go?”

“She didn’t promise. She just said it was possible. If you seemed like you were coping with the boys, taking your medication, all that.”

“Good,” said Ruthie. “That’s good. Three days? Not long then, only another day and a half.”

Ruthie looked at her lap, where the one in green was propped with his fat legs splayed. She gently took hold of the baby’s foot.

Lauren thought, a day and a half. My boys might not be able to hang on that long. In two days, they could be anywhere. That woman could take them anywhere. She sank down and away, until she was curled on the bed facing the wall.