‘I can recommend a good dentist if you need one,’ Dr Sorensen quipped, a lively humour dancing in her eyes, and it was quite clear she wasn’t buying the cover story.

Bell felt her cheeks flame, just as the sound of footsteps running down the corridor made them all turn. Mats, coming back?

‘I came as quickly as I could! Is he okay?’

Bell blinked in surprise as Linus gave a yell of delight and tore across the room into his mother’s arms. ‘Mamma!’

Sandhamn, 23 June 2011

‘Hey! Why aren’t you celebrating? It’s the longest day of the year,’ he said, joining her on the deck. ‘Our favourite day.’

She glanced behind her as he approached, but there was no smile this time to greet him. ‘All the days are long,’ she sighed, looking out to sea. ‘And the nights.’

He watched her, pale hair blowing in the breeze, her gaze distant as it so often was these days. ‘Hanna . . .’ His hands on her shoulders, he turned her to him.

She looked back at him, her beautiful face pale in the dusk. They understood each other at a molecular level. It was instinctive, innate. There were never any lies between them, not when their eyes met. He pushed a wisp of hair back from her face, seeing the dark circles below her eyes, the hollow dip of her cheeks. ‘You’re exhausted.’

‘Yeah, well, babies will do that to you,’ she murmured, almost too tired to shape the words. ‘I don’t know why we should all be so surprised. It does say so on the box.’

He smiled. ‘You need a decent night’s sleep.’

‘That’s just about the one luxury we can’t afford.’

‘So get a nanny.’

She shook her head. ‘No. He’s my child. I’m his mother. I want to do it myself.’ It wasn’t up for discussion. She looked away again and back at the boats on the water, their lights spilling small pools.

He stared out into the night with her, hearing the parties go on without them. In truth, he hadn’t felt like celebrating anyway.

‘. . . Things are different now, aren’t they?’ she said quietly. ‘Between us, I mean.’

He looked across at her and down again, feeling his heart thud heavily. He swallowed, knowing he couldn’t show her . . . ‘Perhaps it was to be expected. They say babies always change things.’

‘It’s been harder than I thought it would.’ She fell quiet and when she spoke again, her voice was choked. ‘The way everything happened . . . so fast . . . falling pregnant, getting married . . . There was hardly time to think –’

‘I know,’ he nodded. There had been a ferocious momentum to it all. One event triggering the next, making it hard for him to breathe.

She turned to face him. ‘I could never regret him. Linus.’

‘Of course not.’

‘. . . But I can feel you slipping further and further away from me, and it makes me feel . . . it makes me feel that the world could end.’