Both men smiled in a friendly way and Rupert, in jeans and an old tweed jacket, got up and pulled out the chair for Laura. She sank on to it, wondering how soon she could go home. There was no way she could make a useful contribution at a meeting like this. She would just sit quietly and listen. Johnny, in black jeans and T-shirt with a cashmere scarf looped round his neck, poured her a glass of water and wrinkled his eyes at her in greeting. He was young and had an earring that looked to Laura very like a hearing aid. As almost everyone else apart from Fenella and Rupert, but including Laura, was wearing some sort of a suit, he seemed like welcome light relief.

‘Is Hugo coming?’ called Rupert as Fenella returned, followed by an attractive young woman carrying a bundle of files who apologised for being late, but oozed efficiency in spite of it.

‘No. He’s working.’ The young woman took a seat and arranged her papers into neat piles in front of her, making eye contact with everyone.

She seemed to epitomise everything Laura was not; she was outgoing and utterly confident. She has a nice smile, Laura thought, and she can’t be much older than me, but I’m still scared of her.

‘Right,’ said the man sitting at the head of the table, ‘shall we start?’

Everyone shuffled and coughed in agreement.

‘I suggest we go round the table introducing ourselves, and saying what our role is in all this,’ he said. ‘Fen, maybe we could have name badges?’

Fenella looked horrified for a moment until the woman who had arrived last said, ‘I’ve got some!’ She pulled out a packet. ‘You will have to write on them yourselves, though,’ she added. ‘I couldn’t do them beforehand because I wasn’t sure who was coming.’

‘We don’t usually do meetings like this,’ murmured Rupert. ‘I prefer the kitchen table and a few bottles of wine.’

Johnny, to whom this aside was addressed, laughed. ‘Mm. I know. I’ve been to a few like that.’

Rupert smiled at Laura to include her in this conversation but it didn’t help much. The delay while people found pens and wrote their names postponed the moment when she’d have to introduce herself to a room full of strangers, and was very welcome. But she’d have to do it eventually, and to think up a role for herself, when she didn’t think she had one.

She caught the eye of the girl who’d said hello and she made a face in solidarity. Laura raised her eyebrows back and wondered why she felt she recognised her.

‘OK,’ said the man at the top. ‘I’m Bill Edwards, I’m going to keep us all in order. Let’s go to the left.’