This conversation was overheard by Mr J. L. B. Matekoni, who was in the room at the time. ‘But he is definitely a fat child,’ he said. ‘I saw her pick him up and I saw how fat he is. He’s a very fat baby, Mma.’

Mma Ramotswe put her finger to her lips in the universal gesture of silence, and of tact. ‘Perhaps it would be best if we did not mention that,’ she said. ‘You know how Mma Makutsi is, Rra. I think, though, he seems a bit greedy. And when she says that he’s thinking…’

‘He’s thinking of food?’ said Mr J. L. B. Matekoni.

They left the matter at that, and Mma Ramotswe, now faced with a clear desk – thanks to Mma Makutsi’s filing blitz of the previous day – contemplated how she would spend that morning. Although they had made great strides in the resolution of Mma Soleti’s problem, she still had the Molapo case to sort out, and she felt that this was going to be rather more challenging. She had, of course, discussed the matter with Mma Makutsi, but that discussion, helpful though it had been in terms of clarifying the issues, had far from solved them.

She looked out of the window. Sometimes it was important simply to get out. It did not matter where you went, as long as you got out of the office, or the kitchen, or any other place where duty required you to be, and went to some place that you did not have to be. So she did not have to be in Mochudi, or in her garden, or on the veranda of the President Hotel. If she were in any of these places it would be because she had chosen to be standing at the top of the hill in Mochudi looking down over the village and hearing the sound of the cattle bells; or tending a plant that needed moving from one spot to another so as to get the benefit of a patch of shade; or simply drinking tea in the presence of others who were doing the same thing. The thought of tea quite naturally led to the thought of cake, and that in turn led to a mental picture of Mma Potokwani standing on the step of her office, smiling and calling out, ‘Well, Mma Ramotswe, this is a well-timed visit! I have just baked a new cake and I was wondering whether you might like a piece.’ And she would reply, ‘Well, Mma Potokwani, it is funny that you should mention cake when I happened to be thinking of exactly that thing.’