She looked at Carmen and spoke in a low voice. “Please don’t just dump them in front of a screen? It’s really unfair on Sofia because they just play up later, do you see?”

Carmen rolled her eyes. “Oh, I have plans, don’t worry.”

SOFIA WAS SKEPTICAL about the whole thing. On the other hand, she reflected, Federico was in Hong Kong doing Hong Kong things, and Skylar was out yoga-ing, so if Carmen took all three out she would have the entire house to herself. She could lie back, read a magazine, maybe break into one of those gift baskets a grateful client had sent over. She wouldn’t have to umpire between what used to be three small people but now appeared to be four. It was, in fact, such an appealing concept that Carmen could have been taking them off to mine coal and she would’ve put up only feeble resistance.

She still had to at least put up the bare minimum, though. She wasn’t one of those women who worked and were also desperate to get away from their children. No. She definitely wasn’t.

“So if I have to stay and do this stupid job . . .” Carmen was saying.

“You want to use my children as slave labor?”

“You don’t want them to learn how to clean?”

“Not particularly,” said Sofia.

“We have a cleaner,” said Pippa. “It’s what happens to you if you don’t work hard at school and go to university.”

Carmen caught her breath. Sofia, who knew she should have dealt with this before, felt utterly ashamed of herself.

“Yes. Okay. Great. Take them.”

“But, Mummy!” objected Pippa.

“You’ll want to put some old clothes on,” said Carmen directly to her.

“Yay,” said Phoebe.

THEY TOOK THE bus, even though it wasn’t far, and Carmen was once again shocked by their amazement at the novelty factor of being on a bus.

“You never catch the bus?” she said, and they shook their heads, then went upstairs, where Jack and Pippa nabbed the front seat. Phoebe looked all set to make a massive scene about not getting one, and Carmen let her while she stared at her phone, formidably ignoring all the tutting Edinburgh ladies sitting around them. Surprisingly, Phoebe calmed down faster than normal as they pootled up Lothian Road, past the huge red sandstone Caledonian hotel.