Russ didn’t believe in letting his daughter win at games. Rowan let her win. Rowan’s parents let her win. The bloody nanny always let her win, at everything. But it wasn’t good for her, not at five years old: it took away her competitive edge, her drive to succeed. There was no real pleasure in being handed success on a plate; on the other hand, nothing tasted better than a hard-fought victory that you fully deserved.

The downside of that, of course, was that she always wanted to carry on playing every game until she did win.

‘Play again?’ she said.

Stretched out full-length on the tiled floor of the games room, Russ sat up with a groan as his joints protested. He crossed his long legs underneath him.

‘Do you want Hippos again, or shall we look for something else?’

‘Hippos! Want Mummy to play as well.’ She looked around the room. ‘Where is Mummy, anyway?’

He looked at his watch. Where was Rowan? They were supposed to be doing things together on this holiday, the three of them. But she was missing in action, again, even though she’d promised to put her phone up in the bedroom and leave it switched off for a couple of hours. His suspicions had hardened since he’d confided in Kate the other night and it was even tougher to keep track of his wife here than it was at home. Something was definitely going on with her. She’d been increasingly secretive and elusive these past few weeks, and yes, the business deal with the Americans was massive, with a life-changing amount of money involved, but there was more than that. There was something else, he was sure of it.

‘Good question, Odette. I don’t know where she’s got to.’ He leaned forward. ‘Hey, I’ve got an idea: how about we play some hide-and-seek?’

Odette’s little face lit up. ‘Yay! Let me hide! Let me hide!’

‘Not yet, poppet.’

‘But I want to go first!’

‘You can be next. Let’s say Mummy’s gone first and we have to find her. But we have to be super-quiet so we can sneak up on her without her knowing.’

Odette jumped up and down. ‘Yes!’ she shouted. ‘Super-quiet!’

Russ put a finger to his smiling lips.

‘Shhh,’ Odette agreed.

‘Do you want a piggy?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, holding her arms up.

He turned and knelt down, lifting her up to give her a piggy-back. She put her little arms over his shoulders and kissed the back of his neck. Russ felt a little rush of love, of pride, of paternal joy, and couldn’t stop the grin spreading across his face. Odette was so small, so light, she weighed almost nothing clamped onto his broad back.

‘I’m as tall as you now, Daddy,’ she whispered.

‘You are, poppet. Tall as a tree.’