Despite her good intentions, Judith is filled with the usual faint irritation at the sight of her sister-in-law. It has always been thus. From the beginning, Max’s devotion to his younger sister has always seemed over the top: his concern and anxiety for her unnecessary and rather embarrassing. Judith smiles and embraces Cara but her critical eye notices that in those jeans and her oversize sweater Cara hardly looks like a grieving widow. But then, thinks Judith resentfully, she’s always looked and behaved like a teenager. Philip and Max encouraged her and, of course, the boys adored her. They loved it on those rare occasions when she came to stay – she seemed to prefer to be with the children than with the adults – and later, when he was away at school and at university, their younger son Christopher always insisted on spending some part of his summer holidays with her and Philip wherever they were posted. He came back full of the jaunts they’d been on, the crazy things they’d done, the fun he’d had. Cara could do no wrong.

‘How long is she planning to stay?’ she asked Max in the car on the way home, once they’d finished talking about the baby and how sweet Poppy was with her new little sister.

‘Oh, come on,’ he said wearily, as though she were being unreasonable. ‘I haven’t asked her. She needs time to think about where she’d like to be.’

‘I can’t think why she sold the house in Fulham,’ Judith answered, irritated as usual by this instant display of partisanship. ‘It was the obvious place for her to be. Shops. Theatres. She could see all their old FO friends when they were on leave.’

‘I’m not sure she thinks of London as home,’ he answered.

‘I don’t think she sees anywhere as home, but you have to admit that it was crazy to sell before she had anywhere else to live.’

He was silent and she felt she’d scored a point. Only Cara would sell her home without having the least idea where she might want to go – except to big brother Max, of course. Judith silently enjoys her minor victory but, at the same time, she wants to think through an idea not yet mooted to Max. She needs to pick her moment before she suggests it to him.

Now, as they all climb the stairs to the kitchen, Cara is asking about the new baby, the little family in Oxford, but Judith answers rather briefly. If she’s honest, she is always annoyed at being stepped down for Freya’s mother, having to give way, and, of course, Paul never sticks up for his own parents. He’s too afraid of Freya’s sharp tongue, thinks Judith crossly.