‘Look, Rose,’ he said, patiently, as if talking to a small child, ‘I’m very grateful that you’re taking Mimi into Godminster General. It’s hugely appreciated. I wish I could do it, but unfortunately the Ukrainians have just switched off Europe’s central heating again, and closed the pipeline, so there’s a spot of bother in former Soviet satellites, and I’ve got to go into the DTI for an all-day crisis meeting. I hope you don’t mind, but if I wanted to have The Debate, I’d have it with Mimi, and the thing is, I don’t want to have The Debate, I can’t have The Debate. I. Just. Don’t. Want. To discuss it. And I don’t want to discuss why I don’t want to discuss it. I’m sorry. I do hope that doesn’t sound too unfriendly.’

‘Ralph, look, look,’ I babbled. ‘It’s OK, I’m sorry, it’s really none of my business. If you really want to know, I have some sympathy with you both. It’s just a miserable situation. Oh, by the way, you’ll never guess who…’

I was going to change the subject and tell Ralph that Clare had been in Honeyborne, the same Clare who’d bought his house in London – a remarkable coincidence, and not a bad little nugget to drop into the conversation. But then I remembered that Mimi had seemed less than thrilled about the fact that Clare had appeared – I put that down to the moment. But I didn’t get a chance.

‘I just feel if we deal with it promptly, she’ll get over it sooner,’ said Ralph, with tones of finality.

In the car, Mimi talks non-stop. Nerves, I suppose, poor lamb.

She holds on her lap a bag, which I presume contains dressing-gown, slippers, and so on. I give her my copy of the Guardian, even though it has a long piece about The Archers in G2 that I was saving up as a treat.

‘A small part of me’s almost looking forward to it, Rose,’ she says, as we drive through the lanes with the dank hedges, dotted with bedraggled wildflowers, rearing up on either side, ‘but only because it’ll be such a relief when all the churning in my head’s stopped. The last two weeks… they’ve been the pits. I had no idea it took so long on the NHS. The absolute pits. So grim. I can’t tell you.’ There is a long pause, then she resumes.