He sighed and Nina looked at him through narrowed eyes, scrutinizing him with that X-ray vision she’d had since childhood. ‘Just for the record, little brother, I’m on yours, okay?’ She winked again and sat back. ‘So how’s he been since getting here then? He must love it, surely?’

‘He’s quiet. He only speaks to answer a question. And he barely looks at me.’

‘Well, you are pretty tough to look at . . . Oh dear God, that was a joke!’ she sighed, peering at him over her cup. He could tell she was determined to tease, jolly and poke him out of his bad mood. She, and she alone, had had that ability since they were little; but he was in no mood for jokes right now.

‘It’s all her fault.’

‘Whose? Hanna’s? Oh, you mean the nanny’s?’

‘She’s deliberately getting in the way. I get no time alone with him. How can I be expected to . . . f-ford a relationship –’

‘Forge.’

He frowned. ‘What?’

‘It’s forge a relationship. Not ford.’

‘Oh.’ He digested the information for a moment, reprocessing the word. ‘Well, how can I if she’s always around? Of course he likes her better. He knows her.’

Nina sighed. ‘Please sit down, Emil. You’re agitated, and you know that’s no good for you.’

He sat down, despair making him obedient.

‘How are the headaches?’ she asked with a frown.

‘Better. They’ve got me on some new pills.’

‘And your sleep? Please tell me you’re managing more than three hours at a stretch?’

‘What would I want to sleep for?’

‘Emil, you were not sleeping whilst you were in a coma. It’s an entirely different thing. You need to sleep.’

He looked up at the ceiling, noticing the delicate tendrils of cut-leaf plasterwork as if for the first time. ‘I’ll sleep when I’ve got my family back. Then I can rest.’

He felt Nina watching him. It was like being stared at by a witch’s cat; there was intensity to the gaze. Weight.

‘Hmm. And how is it going with Hanna?’

‘You mean, now I know she’s got another family? How d’you think?’ Nina didn’t reply, but he saw the pity in her eyes, and he looked away quickly. ‘I was able to get my point across to her about rebuilding my relationship with my son. She understood that.’

‘Did she? And did the words “custody” or “court” come up at all, or was she just entirely obliging, acting from the goodness of her heart?’

‘Don’t be a bitch, Nina.’

She sucked in through her teeth. ‘I don’t know why you’re so determined to defend her. You didn’t have to sit by and watch on for seven years as she got on with playing happy families with another guy, whilst your favourite brother was lying comatose in a bed.’

‘No, because I was the lucky bugger lying comatose in the bed . . . And I’m your only brother, by the way.’

She winked at him again, and this time he smiled.