‘Only chemistry and Latin left,’ said Lara. ‘Then the summer is all mine,’ she drawled.

Megan nodded. ‘We’re going to the grammar in September. How about you?’

They were both looking at her expectantly, guileless, while Becky lay mere metres from them.

‘Um . . . I’ll probably give it a miss this year.’ She saw them twig and glance over to the cot, and she smarted at their badly hidden pitiful looks. ‘Got a full-time job lined up anyway.’

Lara sat up. ‘Oh, right. Cool! Where?’

Damn, why had she said that? They were staring at her now, waiting for her answer. ‘Garden centre,’ she muttered.

They nodded again, pretending it was something good.

‘It’s just until I can get back to school,’ said Kate quickly, knowing as she did that it would be almost impossible. Then suddenly Becky woke, and Kate was reminded of how such a small person could make such a piercing noise. She leaned over the cot and picked her up. Her two friends were watching, bemused.

‘I need to feed her,’ said Kate pointedly.

Lara and Megan still sat there, uncomprehending. Kate had no choice but to open the top button of her nightdress, her cheeks reddening as she did so. She tried to hide her enlarged breasts and cracked nipples but knew by her friends’ horrified reactions they had caught a glimpse.

‘Probably time we should be going,’ said Lara suddenly, and Megan leapt up after her.

Kate watched them leave, knowing it would be a long time before she saw either of them again.

A day later, and in contrast to many of the ward’s other grandparent visitors, her dad arrived without a cloud of balloons or weighted down by teddy bears. She’d wondered if he would come and couldn’t help being overwhelmed by seeing him.

‘Hello, love.’

‘Dad.’ Same old soft, brown eyes and slightly pinched face, worn down by her mother’s anger, disappointment and sadness – feelings Kate herself had accelerated in her mother at an unbelievable pace from the moment she’d fearfully announced her pregnancy. (On a Sunday, with her mother just back from church, in the vain hope that some of the Lord’s bountiful forgiveness was still lingering in her mother’s scarred, hardened heart. No such luck.)

Her dad didn’t look in the hospital crib at first, as if he was too scared. Then his eyes flicked across to it and his face lit up and, for a brief moment, Kate got a glimpse of how it was meant to be.

‘She’s as cute as a button, Katie.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Looks just like you did.’

He turned and smiled at her and all Kate wanted was to sink into her father’s arms. But his smile faltered, and he glanced away.

‘We’re moving,’ he blurted out.

A rising panic. ‘What?’

‘Back to Cork.’

It was like a punch to the gut. ‘What about everything here? Your work?’ She wanted to say What about me? but didn’t.

‘I’ve been offered a post at a secondary school.’