Getting used to it yet? he says. As if we could ever get used to that, or to him, or to the way he treats us, like spoilt children, to be bought and bribed. And he gave Maman a mobile phone, just to keep in touch, he said – I can’t believe you’ve never had one before – and afterwards we had champagne (which I hate) and oysters (which I also hate), and a chocolate soufflé ice cream, which was quite nice, but not as nice as the ones Maman used to make, as well as being very, very small.

And Thierry laughed a lot (at least, at first), and called me jeune fille, and talked about the chocolaterie. Turns out he’s going to London again, and this time he wanted Maman to go with him, but she was too busy, she said, and maybe after the Christmas rush.

‘Really?’ he said. ‘I thought you said business was slow.’

‘I’m trying something new,’ said Maman, and told him about the new line of truffles she was planning, and how Zozie was helping out for a while, and how she was bringing her old things out of storage. She talked about it for a long time, and her face was pink, the way it gets when she’s really into something, and the more she talked, the quieter Thierry got, and the less he laughed, so that finally she stopped talking and looked a bit embarrassed.

‘Sorry,’ she said. ‘You don’t want to hear all this.’

‘No, it’s fine,’ said Thierry. ‘And this was Zozie’s idea, was it?’ He didn’t sound too pleased about it.

Maman smiled. ‘We like her a lot. Don’t we, Annie?’

I said we did.

‘But do you think she’s management material? I mean, she may be all right, but let’s face it, in the long run you’re going to need a bit more than some waitress you poached off Laurent Pinson.’

‘Management material?’ said Maman.

‘Well, I was thinking, when we’re married, you might actually want someone to run the place.’

When we’re married. Oh, boy.

Maman looked up. She was frowning a little.

‘Well, I know you want to run the shop, but surely you don’t need to be there all the time? There’d be all kinds of things to do instead. We’d be free to travel, to see the world . . .’

‘I’ve seen it,’ she said, a little too fast, and Thierry gave her a funny look.

‘Well, I hope you don’t expect me to move in above the chocolaterie,’ he said, with a grin to show he was joking. He wasn’t, though; I could tell from his voice.

Maman said nothing and looked away.

‘Well, what about you, Annie?’ he said. ‘I bet you’d like to travel the world. How about America? Wouldn’t that be cool?’