When the excitement had subsided, little Bessie, always quick on the uptake, said happily, ‘I’ll be getting a daddy then, won’t I? And I’ve always wanted one.’

‘But your mummy hasn’t yet told us who he is,’ said Shirley.

Laura picked up the child and hugged her. ‘Can you guess, Bessie?’

‘I think so, Mummy, and if I’m right, that means I’m getting a big brother and sister, too. Isn’t that lovely?’

‘How big?’ Shirley inquired.

‘Well, they won’t need you to wipe their noses,’ Laura answered with a laugh, ‘and Marianne thinks they’re nice kids.’

Shirley sprang from her chair. ‘Marianne has already met them? Their father as well, I suppose!’

Marianne tried to salve Shirley’s hurt feelings, and with the truth. ‘Last time I was in London to see my publisher, I dropped in at Laura’s and this man and his children just happened to be there.’

‘Come off it! You’ve always been Laura’s confidante,’ was Shirley’s cold response. ‘Who is he?’ she asked Laura.

An expression Marianne had never before seen in Laura’s blue eyes entered them now. But then, Laura had never before been in love, and it was of her beloved she was thinking as she replied to her mother.

‘His name is Jake Bornstein—’

‘A nice Jewish name,’ Shirley cut in with relief. ‘But what does he do?’

‘He’s what you might call an entrepreneur.’

‘Which could mean anything,’ said Marianne’s businessman brother, Harry.

‘What he does isn’t important,’ Laura answered. ‘I love him.’

Harry addressed Shirley. ‘All the proposals your daughter must’ve had and turned down, he has to be something extraordinary.’

‘As a matter of fact, he isn’t,’ Laura informed them. ‘And will you two please stop behaving as if I’m still a girl and in need of family guidance? I’ll soon be thirty-seven.’

‘A good reason for your making the decision you finally have,’ said Harry.

‘But not the reason,’ Laura countered. ‘And by the way, Jake is South African. We met when I was there last year, taking pictures of Winnie Mandela—’

‘And little Bessie left at home with the chicken-pox,’ Shirley interrupted.

‘She didn’t go down with it until after I’d gone.’

‘And who got the call from your worried housekeeper? When she told me the blisters had spread to my poor darling’s throat, well – I couldn’t get to London fast enough, I drove all the way down the M1 in the fast lane. And may I say, Laura, that I wish you luck finding a housekeeper able and willing to take care of three kids. Have you told Jake what I don’t need telling? That you don’t intend giving up your career and staying home?’

‘Anything I want is fine with him, Mum.’

‘What sort of man can that be?’ said Harry.