The distraction works. Judith’s voice quacks on as she reports on the situation in Oxford where their pregnant daughter-in-law has broken her ankle. Their son Paul is lecturing abroad and Judith has rushed away to look after Freya and their two-year-old granddaughter. Max’s suggestion that he should accompany Judith was refused. She must be the good fairy; the practical, capable one. He is a helpless male who will only be in the way. And, besides, there is Oscar, the black Lab, who is presently stretched out on the kitchen floor fast asleep. Oscar would not be welcome in the small terraced house in Jericho. Max is used to Judith’s reminders of her ability to cope, of managing without him all those years as a naval wife, moving house, making decisions, coping with the boys. Now that he is retired he is careful to respect this. Much though he would like to see his family, especially small Poppy, he understands that he will be de trop on this occasion, but he feels guilty at a fleeting awareness of relief, of gratitude to Oscar, and his pleasure at the idea of spending quality time with Cara. However old they both get she will always be his little sister, eight years his junior; the small girl who was there to welcome him home from boarding school, to be rescued from scrapes. Each week their father hurried away from the big old house in Sussex to his work in the City, and to his mistress, whilst their reclusive, dysfunctional mother worked out her frustration on the gin bottle. Away at school, Max worried about Cara, neglected, exposed to their mother’s crying jags and fits of temper. She died when Cara was nearly fourteen and Max was twenty-one and a midshipman at Royal Britannia Naval College in Dartmouth. Philip Grey was his closest friend and, even after he moved on to Cambridge and then to the Foreign Office, Philip was always ready to spend a part of his holidays in Sussex. It amused them both to visit Cara at school and take her out to tea, and, when she was older, to vet her boyfriends; take her to the theatre when she was in London. Max had just been made up to lieutenant commander, the engineer officer on a nuclear submarine, and Judith was pregnant with their second son, when Cara and Philip decided to get married. Philip was First Secretary in the British Embassy in Rome and Cara was barely twenty-one. Max was now spending a great deal of time at sea, and he felt a huge sense of relief knowing that Cara would be looked after and also that his friendship with Philip would remain a close one. He’s going to miss Philip.

‘Well, give them all my love,’ Max says to Judith when he gets a chance to speak. ‘Freya must be very glad to have you there. I can come up if you need me.’