Connie, who just wanted to sleep, replied, ‘There’s really no need. I feel much better, sweetheart. I think I was just exhausted from holding it together on the tour.’

Caitlin nodded slowly. ‘You should have called me, Mum. I could have fetched you.’

‘I knew Ash was in Paris this week.’ Although the thought had not occurred to her last night.

‘Yes, but I could have bundled Bash into the car. How on earth did you get a doctor, anyway?’

‘I can’t remember much. I was so out of it …’ Which is true, she thought, before she added the lie. ‘I must have phoned Reception and they sent one.’

Her daughter got up. ‘Right, well, what can I get you? Tea, maybe … Are you hungry?’ She checked her watch. ‘Dad said he’d be here around three. But I think you should stay tonight at least – as long as you want, Mum.’ She gave Connie a sympathetic smile. ‘It must have been so scary, being ill and alone in an unfamiliar hotel room.’

‘I think I was too far gone to mind,’ Connie replied, although she remembered the relief she’d felt, seeing Jared’s face.

‘Tea?’ Caitlin repeated.

‘Maybe just water for now. I think I’ll sleep.’

When Caitlin had set a jug of water and a glass on the bedside table and gone to fetch Bash from nursery, Connie rolled over on the clean, smooth pillow and closed her eyes. But she found she couldn’t sleep. Jared’s face kept coming back to her. He had been so frightened for her.

Never before had he shown Connie any signs of what she meant to him. He’d come and gone in such a casual way – his past, his emotional life, pretty much a closed book. Once, in Warsaw, she’d mentioned to him that her mother had died recently, and asked about his parents. He’d looked away. ‘Nothing special,’ he’d said. She could feel the sudden tension, but she persevered, ‘Are they still alive?’

There had been a long pause. ‘My mother was a single parent, I was an only child … She … she had problems.’ Connie had waited for him to say more, but it was a long time before he added, ‘Dinah is the closest thing to family I have now.’ The challenging look in his eyes dared her to ask any more, and she dropped the subject, not wanting to upset him.