Immediately, the tears that had been threatening, spilled over and I put my face in my hands. ‘I’m sorry, Ben. It’s just that I’m feeling so ill and I thought I might faint but I was here on my own and I didn’t know what to do. I was so worried about the baby.’

As always with any mention of the baby’s wellbeing, Ben’s irritation immediately melted away. He came rushing over and knelt down in front of me, pulling me into his arms. ‘Oh sweetheart, you poor thing. You should have said …’

‘I didn’t want to ruin Christmas for your mum. She’s gone to so much trouble!’

‘You haven’t ruined Christmas! There’s still plenty of time to enjoy ourselves.’ Ben gave my back a reassuring rub as he spoke.

I rolled my eyes. I had absolutely no intention of staying here a minute longer than I had to. ‘But I just feel dreadful, Ben. I’m so sorry but all I want to do is go home to bed.’

Ben pulled away and I could see the conflict travelling over his features. It was either upset me or upset his mum. We both already knew there was no contest. ‘You couldn’t go to bed here?’ he suggested without conviction, knowing the battle was already lost.

I shook my head sadly. ‘I think it’s best if I’m near the hospital … Just in case.’

Reluctantly, Ben nodded and stood up. ‘OK, I’ll just go and tell Mum.’ I could see he was dreading the conversation as he trudged out of the room, his shoulders hunched.

I felt slightly guilty, leaving him to face the music alone, so I followed him out into the hallway and headed towards the kitchen, where Ben was standing in the doorway. I paused halfway along, so that I could listen to what he was saying. ‘Um, Bella’s not feeling too good. I’m really sorry but I think we’d better go home.’

‘What?’ Jo whined. ‘But what about lunch, your presents … you were supposed to be staying the night?’

Ben glanced over his shoulder nervously and locked eyes with me, standing watching him. ‘I’m sorry, Mum,’ he said, walking back towards me.

‘Peter, can’t you speak to her?’ Jo said in what she clearly thought were hushed tones but which carried down the hallway, loudly enough to be easily heard by Ben and me. ‘See if you can persuade her to stay? She seems to like you more than me.’

I almost laughed at the irony of her words.

‘I’d rather not,’ Peter said. That’s the understatement of the century! I thought. ‘I’m not sure it’ll do much good anyway and if she’s genuinely not feeling well …’

‘Please, Peter. It’ll spoil everything if they leave and I can tell Ben doesn’t want to. It’s her …’

Ben looked at me in panic and tried to usher me back down the hallway out of earshot. But I shook him off and walked to the doorway of the kitchen.