Jim sat down beside her, his back resting against the bare wall. ‘I’m sorry, Syl, I know you were excited about the trip.’ He squeezed her hand. ‘But I can’t say I’m not a little relieved. You should be taking care of yourself now, not rushing around like a mad thing to foreign countries.’

He smiled and nudged her as he said it, but his words reignited something in her and she turned to face him. ‘Jim, don’t be ridiculous, I’m perfectly capable of going abroad. I’m fine, the baby is fine. Roger’s decision is completely unfair and I’m going to try to fight it. I just don’t know how yet.’

‘You’re four months gone.’ He turned to her. ‘And yet you don’t seem to be accepting that this is happening. You say the baby’s fine, but how do you know? You’re not going to your midwife appointments, are you?’

She started to protest and then pulled herself up short. ‘Have you been snooping on me?’

‘Hardly. You left your diary lying around, I happened to glance at it and I saw you’d crossed out an appointment at Guys.’

‘Look, work’s been busy. Anyway, I can uncancel it now I’m not going to Denmark.’

‘Please do.’ He sighed and rubbed his eyes, the resignation of a parent trying to talk sense into a child. ‘Syl,’ he said slowly, ‘you have to accept that things have to change. We’re going to be parents – our priorities will be different.’

‘Our priorities?’

‘Yes!’

His confused expression sparked a hot rage in her and she fought back the angry tears that threatened to undermine her.

‘As far as I can tell, everything you’re doing and saying is about me changing my priorities. Well, what about you? Are you going to be forced to give up your job, to throw away the position you’ve worked so hard to get and let someone who isn’t as good as you step into your shoes? Are you? Because if not, Jim, then your priorities aren’t changing – not really. You know nothing about how it feels to have a… situation you didn’t want impose itself on you and alter everything.’

He looked down at his shoes and then back at her. ‘You don’t want this?’

‘Honestly?’ Her voice wavered. ‘No. I don’t want to be pregnant. I didn’t want to get married in a rush, as though I should be embarrassed by my predicament. And I don’t want to give up the job I’ve always wanted and am just starting to make a success of – not even for a minute, let alone months or years or however long you are expecting me to change my priorities for.’

‘I didn’t know you felt this way. We always said we’d have kids.’