They leave the Portobello Road and join Ladbroke Grove just before it passes under the Westway – the motorway on stilts that carries BMWs from Beaconsfield into central London. In the dark area beneath the viaduct, tramps lean against the concrete struts clutching cans of Special Brew. An aroma of urine mingles with that of diesel on the crisp morning air. They are now in North Kensington, that part of London that has been up-and-coming for the past fifty years. They walk along Oxford Gardens, Bassett Road, Chesterton Road – streets that have defied gentrification. They pause by houses flagged with estate agents’ boards. ‘We’d be no better off here than in Hammersmith,’ says Jomier.

‘Or Wandsworth,’ says Judith.

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Sunday lunch in Queen’s Park with Henry and Sandra. Jomier goes alone. He is without Judith. Both have agreed that it is best for each to break the news to their children of their proposed cohabitation in the absence of the other. Judith also thinks she should cook lunch for the emotionally needy Ophelia – the quality time that Ophelia feels she was denied as a child when her mother was off with Alfredo, Giles, et al. Jomier has not seen his son, daughter-in-law and their children since before Christmas: in the new year they had gone skiing in Courchevel with their friends the Crockford-Tylers. Sam and Ned run to embrace their grandfather. Sandra kisses him on both cheeks. Henry too embraces his father. He has mulled some wine. The children beg to taste it. Henry gives them a sip. Samantha stumbles around pretending to be drunk. Ned follows her, rolling and laughing, round and round the mound of plastic toys they have been given for Christmas.

Henry has cooked a chicken with roast potatoes and Brussels sprouts. He is in a benign mood – relieved, Jomier suspects, that the holiday season is over and he has returned to the calm of his office. Sandra is preoccupied: Tracey, the Australian nanny, has chosen this moment to go skiing herself. She will not be back for another week. Sandra feels that Tracey should have fixed her skiing holiday to coincide with theirs rather than falling in with the plans of her Aussie friends. But she does not want to lose Tracey and so has had to swallow her irritation and try and work out if the taking and fetching of children to school can be undertaken by Alena the au pair alone.

Henry and Sandra go through the permutations of this nanny crisis as they eat lunch. Jomier has no suggestions other than offering his own services as auxiliary au pair should they be required. Henry too affects detachment: Sandra’s staff is her affair. This annoys Sandra as much as Tracey’s holiday plans but she tries not to show it. Clearly there has been some pre-nup agreement that nannies and au pairs were her responsibility while cooking chickens was his.