‘Oh, I’m sorry.’

He shrugged. ‘Don’t be. Water under the bridge.’ He gave his bearded chin a scratch. ‘You know, I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s something different about you these days.’

She drew in her stomach muscles as discreetly as she could. ‘It must be the yoga classes I’ve been doing online,’ she said. ‘You should give it a go sometime, it’s very relaxing.’

He laughed. ‘Somehow I can’t see myself doing that. Anyway, I just wanted to say how much I appreciated your input earlier. And to say that Charlotte at Topolino can’t sing your praises enough.’

‘Well, that’s good to know,’ she said smoothly.

‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised if she tried to poach you,’ he said with one of his knowing stares.

Martha spent the next hour dealing with emails and phone calls and after a hurried lunch, and yet another trip to the toilet, she encountered the new intern quietly sobbing over one of the basins. Jason, so the girl explained, had just yelled at her for spilling coffee over his desk. It was her first week at BND and she was terrified it would be her last.

‘Don’t give it another thought,’ Martha assured her, ‘he’ll have forgotten all about it by the time we’re back after the Bank Holiday weekend.’

This wasn’t strictly true; Martha knew that Jason could harbour a grudge with the best of them. For that matter she was no slouch in that department, especially when it came to Rick. She still hadn’t forgiven him for that dressing-down he’d given her on the telephone all those months ago. And as for his cloying overprotectiveness of Willow, that really irritated her. There was, she’d decided, something divisive about him. She hated admitting she could have been wrong, but she wholeheartedly regretted ever thinking he was the ideal boyfriend for her sister. Such was the strength of her dislike for Rick, she could almost feel nostalgic for some of the previous boyfriends Willow had brought home. The ones who were so laid-back and irresponsible it would never dawn on them to question Martha or put her in her place.

Thankfully she had been spared seeing too much of Rick in the last month or so. Tom had surprised her with a weekend away in the Cotswolds at a beautiful country hotel that had proved to be just what she’d needed to unwind. Until then she hadn’t realised just how tightly wound she’d been. They’d also gone up to Yorkshire to see Tom’s sister and father. Being with her husband’s family had felt refreshingly uncomplicated compared to her own right now.

Tom was waiting for her at the hospital, and Martha, having drunk a half-litre of water on the way here, as instructed so that the scan would give them a clearer picture of the baby, was desperate for the loo.

Sitting in the waiting room, and to keep her mind off the need to relieve herself, she told Tom about the email she’d received from Topolino, offering her a job.