Whatever exhaustion or negative emotions he might feel at the rigorous and wholly unerotic nature of their current sex life, he was determined not to let it show. He had to keep in mind what they were trying to achieve. It would all be worth it in the end. He just hoped it would happen this month. If they failed this time round, he knew the next step – the only logical next step – was for them to seek medical help.

According to what Martha said, and what he’d read online, most couples would have already spoken to a doctor by now. Tom didn’t normally drag his feet, he was like Martha in that respect, but in this instance, it was all wrapped up in his fear that he might fail Martha. Common sense told him that he might well be firing on all cylinders just fine, and it could be Martha’s body that was at the heart of the problem, but if that was the case then he wouldn’t be able to bear seeing how much that would distress her. If there was a bullet to be taken, he would sooner be the one who took it as he felt sure he would be able to cope with it better than Martha. She was one of the strongest and most clear-thinking people he knew, but he worried that she wouldn’t be able to accept a diagnosis of that order objectively. He knew it would eat away at her.

Irrational behaviour was not something Martha went in for, that was more Willow’s territory, but there was no getting away from it, Martha’s response to her mother’s news had made her behave irrationally. Her reaction far exceeded anything he might have expected. Not that he had previously put any thought into what would happen if his mother-in-law did announce that she had met somebody, perhaps because he hadn’t thought she ever would; she seemed so quietly content with life post Colin.

Colin had always struck Tom as being at the centre of the Miller family; the lynchpin. That was how Martha had regarded him, that much was true. Another man in Tom’s position might have imagined that he would partially fill the gap in the family left by Colin’s death. But Tom had been astute enough to know that while Naomi had indeed occasionally turned to him for advice, it was Martha who had seen herself stepping into Colin’s shoes as head of the family. For his part, Tom had been happy to play a supporting role to his wife, and to Naomi and Willow. It was recognising one’s role in a marriage – and within a family – that was ultimately the key to a couple’s happiness.

As far as he could see, that was what had made Naomi and Colin’s marriage the success it had been; they had each carved out their roles and been happy with the arrangement. In the same way Tom had accepted that Martha hated to cook, and he loved to cook. In turn, she had never minded that he was hopeless at DIY and that she knew her way round a toolkit better than he did, thanks to her father having taught her the basics at a young age. Friends had teased him about this, but in no way did he feel emasculated by his wife’s prowess with a drill and a monkey wrench. ‘We all have our talents and should know our strengths and weaknesses,’ he would say. As Martha would be the first to point out, she didn’t know a roux from a bechamel sauce, and never planned to.