Florence stopped laughing and her head dropped. I marvelled at how obedient she was, while Gigi carried on dancing around still shouting, ‘Poo poo head, poo poo head!’

‘Gigi, stop that. It is not a nice way to talk.’ The annoying American mother who liked to spam us all with health studies into the effects of processed sugar on children’s development was staring at us unsmiling. Her pale son stood quietly in front of her watching. The poor sod had had a cake made of cacao and sweet potato for his birthday party.

I leaned down and whispered into Gigi’s ear, ‘Stop saying “poo” or no chocolate when we get home.’

Gigi stopped. I straightened up. Appearance was everything and right now it looked as though I had some control over my daughter.

‘Good, no more silly words. You’re a big girl now. We talk nicely.’ I held my head up high as we walked past the line of mothers waiting to pick up.

‘Yes, Mama. Talk nicely get chocolate,’ Gigi said.

Goddammit. My smile fixed in place, I ushered her after Florence and Frederick. I was sure I heard the American mother mutter ‘cycle of addiction’ as we left the courtyard.

The girls ran ahead together as Frederick and I walked across the green.

‘One Ghost got away.’

‘Did they get anything?’

‘Doesn’t look like it but we’re tracking him down to be sure.’ I looked across at him. ‘How are you doing?’

‘I’m fine. Slept well, actually. Surprising, all things considered.’

I didn’t want to pry further.

‘How are the Pigs?’

‘Peppa implied she was going to be out of London for the weekend.’

‘I’ve heard from Dionne that Peppa is bringing her daughter to the WAF pottery café morning tomorrow. But I guess she could still head out of town afterwards. We’ll look into it.’

‘George Pig is leaving the office in an hour. Requested leaving early for vague “family reasons”.’

‘Kate said he was slammed at work and they’ve had to cancel a Cornwall trip next week. So there’s no way he’ll be going home.’ I thought for a moment how it was going to be pretty depressing if he was having an affair too.

‘You need to make sure he’s followed. I’ll keep watching Peppa at the office.’

I pulled out my phone and emailed Whistle the update for Robin to get in position to follow George as soon as he left the office.

I turned to Frederick. ‘I still think the Coyote will strike at the Wycombe shoot tomorrow. Hattie has got me inside Cherwell Castle as a Protection Officer but he’s struggling on getting anyone else in.’