‘No.’

‘Because I live in hope that one day I’ll see the presenter turn on those couples and give them a piece of his or her mind. Now that would make good telly, don’t you think?’

Willow was inclined to agree. ‘So, Mrs Powell,’ she tried once more. But she got no further.

‘Well, it’s been nice chatting to you, dear. That’s the trouble with being old, you don’t have the chance to chat that much; people are always in such a hurry. I can go for days without seeing or speaking to anybody. No time for the pleasantries in life, that’s the trouble with folk. Like I say, it’s been nice talking with you, but I really must get on now. Goodbye.’

Willow knew she’d lost her chance so reluctantly said goodbye too.

‘Mind not on the job today, Willow?’

It was Kyle and he was standing right behind her. How did he do it? How did he creep up on her the way he did?

‘It wasn’t a convenient time for the woman to talk,’ Willow lied, scrolling through the list of donors on her computer screen. Well, it wasn’t that big a lie, Mrs Powell did have an appointment with Escape to the Country to keep, didn’t she?

Seemingly satisfied with her answer, Kyle went to check on the latest recruit to AoK. He was yet another actor who needed an income between jobs and the flexibility to bunk off to go for auditions at short notice. Kyle didn’t really like actors – too full of themselves, he believed – but he knew better than anyone that they could act up a storm when it came to pleading a good sob story to get a donor to increase their regular donations.

There was no answer from the telephone number Willow had just dialled, and seeing she was now eligible for a fifteen-minute break, she removed her headset and went to the office kitchen to make herself a drink.

While she waited for the kettle to boil, she felt her mobile vibrating in the breast pocket of her dungarees. Woe betide anyone who answered or made a personal call while they were supposed to be working.

As she thought it would be, it was Rick. When she was at work, he always liked to make sure she was all right, that she wasn’t overdoing it.

‘Hi there,’ he said, ‘what are you up to?’

‘Just making myself a drink.’

‘And you’re okay? You’re not feeling too tired or too stressed?’

‘You know I don’t work down a coalmine, don’t you?’ she joked.

‘And you know what I’m like, I worry about you. How’s our Little Princess?’

Willow put a hand to her bump, which the midwife had called a ‘very small neat bump’ during her last check-up. Rick worried that she should be bigger at this stage, but the midwife, who had recommended some antacid to sort out the indigestion problem Willow had previously suffered, didn’t seem to think there was a problem.