This house had once been spectacular. Tastefully decorated, each item of furniture had been agonised over, carefully selected, and put into place with love and pride. Now, though, every room had boxes piled up everywhere. Josephine shopped like she was feeding the five thousand. A case of this, two cases of that. What really bothered Lana was that Josephine acted like it was perfectly normal. This was a very big house, yet her daughter was having to use every room to store her purchases. But Lana knew better than to say anything – she was not going to rock the boat in any way now that they were finally back on track. She kept her own counsel where Michael was concerned too. Josephine was not going to listen to anything detrimental about him, but Lana knew she must have heard the rumours going round. Look at all this about Kelvin McCarthy for a start – it was the talk of the town.

There was something she needed to pluck up the courage to ask her daughter though – something she couldn’t let go. It was far too important. She gulped down her wine for more Dutch courage. It was really lovely; one good thing about Michael Flynn for all his faults – and they were legion – was he only bought the best.

‘I’m a bit pissed, Josephine!’

Josephine laughed happily. ‘I could have told you that, Mum!’

Lana laughed with her daughter, pleased to see the girl so happy for once. ‘Josephine, my love, I have to ask you this, darling, as your mum – please don’t be cross with me. Are you pregnant again?’

Josephine looked at her mother, sorry to her soul that her mum had not asked her the question straight out but had needed a few drinks to pluck up the courage. She knew that this was her fault. She had deliberately built a barrier between her and her mum. A barrier that had alienated her from her own mother so much she was too scared to ask her a perfectly natural question. She was nearly eight months gone now. She knew she should have told her mother already. She was an only child, she was all her parents had. She felt so guilty, and so disloyal. Her mum loved her more than anything, and she knew that without a doubt.

She was nearly in tears as she said brokenly, ‘I didn’t tell anyone, Mum. Neither did Michael – I wouldn’t let him. I didn’t want to get everyone’s hopes up again. That way, if I lost this baby, I wouldn’t have to face everyone, see their disappointment along with my own. I would have just coped with it myself this time. I didn’t tell you in case it went wrong again. I couldn’t bear to put you through it.’