So, all they really had between them was breath-taking sex and a passionate love of all things Italian. With no future to consider, there seemed to be less requirement to delve into the past, to discover the ins and outs of a childhood, a career path, a family history. For Connie, such knowledge would only have meshed her and Jared more closely. And the truth was that she’d been drawing back from day one. Unsuccessfully, of course – because she was too weak to resist – but knowing too much, getting too close, would just have made things more painful to untangle.

What did he expect from me? she wondered now. He’d always known she was firmly married – although she had to admit her actions didn’t exactly back that up. She remembered the allusion Dinah had made to a past relationship of Jared’s – which had obviously gone wrong. But when Connie had tentatively asked him about Charlotte, the night they were in Warsaw, he’d been vague.

‘We had a misunderstanding,’ he’d said.

‘What sort of misunderstanding?’ Connie had asked, although she could see he was uncomfortable talking about anything personal, as usual.

He’d shrugged. ‘We just didn’t want the same thing. Dinah got all excited – she’s so dying to see me “settle down”,’ he held up his fingers to put ironic quote marks round the words, ‘but Charlotte had other ideas.’ For a split second his eyes darkened. Then he deftly changed the subject. Connie was none the wiser about what had really gone on.

Lying there now, she worried that Jared’s tears – his anxiety for her safety – implied he felt something more significant for her than just sexual attraction: an emotional tie that she’d not previously been aware of. The thought was disturbing.

When Devan arrived, Connie was sitting up, nursing a cup of tea and some Marmite toast she had little interest in eating. She’d slept for at least two hours, her cough bothering her at intervals, only properly waking because her grandson was standing by the bed, gently patting her face.

‘Nana,’ he said, in a stage whisper, ‘Nana, wake up.’

Caitlin was immediately at the door. ‘I told you not to disturb her, Bash.’

Bash shot his mother a triumphant look. ‘It’s OK, Nana’s eyes are open.’

Devan barely said hello to Connie before going straight into professional mode. He’d even brought his bag of tricks, and pulled out his stethoscope. He listened to her chest, took her pulse and blood pressure, examined her throat, palpated the glands in her neck and finally pressed the sensor of the thermometer into her ear. Then he sat on the bed, his face a mask of worry, and began firing questions at her, leaving no time between each in which to respond.