Hanna stared out into the night: the sun was bouncing along the horizon like a golden balloon, darkness a slow bleed that trickled like a stain from the higher reaches of the sky. She smacked her lips together and looked back over. ‘Bell . . . I hope you know how much you mean to us all. Not just the children, but . . . to Max and me, too.’

Odd thing to say. ‘I think so,’ Bell nodded, waiting for a ‘but’.

‘And you know you are absolutely pivotal to how we . . .’ She frowned, straining for the right word. ‘Well, how our family works.’

‘Thank you.’

‘And I’m very aware that you go above and beyond in helping us, really I am. Far beyond what your contract stipulates, and I probably don’t tell you enough how much your flexibility and . . . forbearance helps us –’

Bell held her breath. Whatever the hell was coming, it surely couldn’t be good if she was being this nice.

‘– especially when we’ve had so much change to deal with lately.’

Where was the damned ‘but’?

‘As you are no doubt very aware – but far too polite to mention – we’ve had a difficult few months. You saw at first hand how the, uh . . . miraculous news about my husband’s recovery and our subsequently disastrous visit to Uppsala threw me into a tailspin.’

Had it? Yes, Hanna had lost some weight, and she and Max had been more snappy with one another recently. But apart from last Thursday night’s freak events, everything had been business as usual. No mention of the Uppsala trip was ever made; the family seemed to have unilaterally agreed to a pact of silence on the incident, and it hadn’t been raised (at least in her earshot) since. Bell was a little ashamed to admit that she’d all but forgotten the poor man. Life had carried on for the Mogerts, with only a tiny stumble on their otherwise smooth path.

Hanna gripped her wine glass with both hands, the aquamarine ring gleaming under the lights. ‘I’ll be the first to admit I haven’t handled things very well. And I know I haven’t been . . . the easiest person to be around lately.’ She looked away again, embarrassment and something else – guilt? shame? – forcing her to avert her eyes. ‘I’ve been under a lot of strain, you see, trying to do the right thing by my ex – as you can probably imagine, there’s a lot of admin and practicalities, as well as all sorts of legalities that we need to sort out now that he’s recovering so well.’

‘Oh. Yes, well, I assumed –’ She wasn’t sure what to say. ‘But it’s great that he’s getting better.’

‘Oh, you wouldn’t recognize him as the same man,’ Hanna said, with what seemed like reluctant admiration. ‘He went to a specialist clinic in Switzerland and they’ve worked miracles with him. Honestly, he’s almost back to normal again.’