‘Not your fault. But you may as well know, I’m going to have a baby. Roger seems to think that’s incompatible with doing an interview in Denmark.’

‘Fucking hell,’ he said, and then caught himself. ‘I mean, congratulations to you and your er… Jim.’

His slight smile and raised eyebrows induced a flush of embarrassment, before anger flooded through her. Why should she feel embarrassed to have a child? Why had other people’s embarrassment pushed her into a shotgun wedding? Why on earth should she stop doing a job she loved months before the baby had even arrived?

‘Thanks, my husband’s delighted,’ she said. She wanted to just end this, to let him go back to his desk so they could both pretend to work in peace. ‘Enjoy Copenhagen. I hear it’s beautiful at this time of year.’

It was all around the office within the hour.

She left the building on the dot of 6pm, turning down Max’s invitation for a quick snifter with the boys at the Old Bell, and was home before Jim this time. She sat on the hard floorboards, avoiding that damn armchair out of principle. The wait felt interminable, the flat so silent she could hear the tick of her watch, counting down the seconds until he arrived.

‘Please tell me you didn’t do it?’ she said when he walked in the door.

‘Hello to you too, darling.’

‘Because you had absolutely no right.’

He took off his coat and hung it on the back of the door and turned back to her. Calm, steady. She felt her heart pulsing hard in her chest.

‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said.

‘Did you tell Roger I was pregnant?’

‘What?’ he said. ‘Well, no. Hadn’t you?’

‘No, Jim, no I hadn’t. But someone did, today, and as a result I am no longer going to Denmark to interview Anne Warburton because Roger says they haven’t got the bloody insurance, although I’m sure that’s a pathetic made up excuse simply to punish me for getting pregnant. So if it was you, Jim, if it was you who took this away from me then please be honest and admit to what you’ve done.’

He rubbed his hand over his eyes and looked at her, hurt carving creases into his features. He came over and crouched down in front of her, took her hand in his and looked her right in the eyes. ‘No, I didn’t. I promise you.’

She stared right back and saw he was telling the truth and something eased inside her. ‘Okay,’ she said. Then who the hell else did?