‘Maybe,’ said Mma Makutsi. ‘But you’ll have to find a nice girl first, Charlie. And that means a girl with the right sort of figure to have nice babies. Not one of your fashionable girls. Not one of those girls I’ve seen you with – they’re not interested in babies, you know.’

Charlie was quick to agree. ‘That is true, Mma. Those girls are… they’re useless for these things.’

Mma Ramotswe laughed. ‘Think very carefully about fatherhood, Charlie,’ she said. ‘You have to be sure that you are ready.’

‘Oh, I’m ready, Mma,’ said Charlie. ‘When I see a baby like that, I know I’m ready.’

Mma Ramotswe was both amused and puzzled. She was amused by the young man’s evident pleasure in holding the baby, and puzzled by the apparent change in his attitude. Not all that long ago, when he was suspected – wrongly, as it turned out – of being the father of a girlfriend’s twins, he had been horrified by the thought of being a father. Now, it seemed, the idea had become appealing. We change, she thought. A year or so can make a very big difference, especially if you are a young man.

Mma Makutsi looked at her watch. ‘That’s enough now,’ she said. ‘Itumelang needs his feed, and then Mma Ramotswe and I have some important work to do.’ She clapped her hands peremptorily. ‘Tea break over.’

Mma Ramotswe lowered her eyes. It had always been for her to say when the tea break started and when it ended; now it seemed that Mma Makutsi had taken that role upon herself. For a moment – the briefest of moments – she felt resentment, but it did not last, for of all the emotions and attitudes of which she was composed, resentment or envy surely had the smallest place. So rather than dwell on Mma Makutsi’s assumptions, she reminded herself of her good fortune in having her assistant back. And with that, she felt that most exquisite, and regrettably rare, of pleasures – that of welcoming back one who has left your life. We cannot do that with late people, Mma Ramotswe thought, much as we would love to be able to do so, but we can do it with the living.

Mma Ramotswe spoke suddenly. The mechanics had left the room, and it was just Mma Makutsi, Itumelang and herself. She said, ‘Mma Makutsi, thank you. Thank you for coming back.’

‘That is quite all right, Mma,’ said Mma Makutsi. ‘I am very happy to be back at work.’

‘And thank you for everything you have done for me – and for the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. I don’t know if I have ever thanked you for that – thanked you enough, that is.’