I call Felix back over before I can give in to the strong urge to follow Felix’s lead and give her a good kick in the shins. My hands are clenched.

It’s fortunate that I have my own friends now, too, made through the baby groups I used to mock and be so envious of. I get it now, that Nina wasn’t excluding me intentionally (not then, anyway), that it’s natural to gravitate toward people with whom you have something in common. I have embraced my new world, and I love the delicious secretiveness that no one but me knows the sex of my future child. It is one of the few things that I have all to myself. I cling to anything positive because so much else feels off-kilter.

Greg is waiting for me in his car when I arrive home. He eases his large frame out of the driver’s seat as I pull up.

“What are you doing here?”

“You can say no, but I’m here to install the camera,” he says. “It’s simple enough for me to do and it sounded like you were having difficulties. I know you can do it, but thought it would cross another thing off the to-do list.”

I hesitate.

He shrugs. “I have sprung it on you, I know. No worries—it’s an open offer. I can come back another time.”

I don’t like to admit defeat. Despite that, I agree. He’s right about the to-do list, it’s too tempting.

“Did you know I was being kicked out of the book club?”

Maybe kicked out is a bit strong, but it feels like it to me.

Greg opens the trunk of his car and removes a tool bag. “What? No!”

“Yes.”

I brew us a coffee while he sets to work and moan about Tamsin. I can’t help it, he’s a good listener.

“Thanks for this,” I say, as he runs through how the equipment works.

“It’s a pleasure. I always wanted to be a policeman. I don’t like ‘the bad guys’—” he mimes quotation marks “—getting away with it.”

“Why did you go into private investigator work instead?”

“Long story. My jobs have been pretty diverse over the years.”

My response is silence, to encourage him to spill some (potentially interesting) beans. Perhaps I should retrain to be a therapist.

He half bites at the opportunity.

“Like I said, it’s a long story, which I don’t bore people with, but the outcome meant I had to kiss goodbye my career dreams.”

My face must give away my unease because he rushes to reassure me.

“Don’t worry, it’s not as if I murdered anyone!”

“Well, of course.”

“I wish you’d confided in me sooner. Usually, a camera alone is a good enough deterrent. Spread the word that you’ve installed one if you’re convinced it’s someone you know. That also usually does the trick.”

“How well do you know people in the village?”

“I moved here over five years ago, so I don’t have a long-term history with anyone local.”