When Julia and herself had set up their own law firm in 2007, she’d been honest from the beginning about her desire to have another child and Julia had understood. Well, not the call of motherhood – Julia Stephens had always been clear in her preference to remain childless – but Julia had reassured Claire that they could work out a plan so that Claire could take maternity leave and then return with some flexibility. Indeed, Julia had even gone so far as to say that their own firm would be the perfect solution for a mother who still wanted to work.

And it would have worked well – it was just unfortunate that giving Joshua a sibling had taken longer than either Claire, Chris or Julia had anticipated. Claire knew her career had suffered but what was the alternative? You couldn’t be at the beck and call of both a demanding judge and the needs of a baby.

Now, with Joshua soon off to uni and Jamie heading to school, she’d somehow managed to sell the idea of her going back to work full-time to Chris over a bottle of wine the night before. She had successfully leveraged the fact that one of their couple friends had just hired a nanny and apparently it had been life-changing, so they would hire a nanny too, to do the afternoon school run, and to watch Jamie in the afternoons. Claire had been deliberate; she’d only broached the subject once the wine bottle was almost empty and as she watched him mulling it over, she knew that even if he didn’t agree to her proposal, she would have to find a way to go back to work full-time somehow. Her brain physically ached for the hum of court. She missed having a purpose that was just hers, and hers alone. And when she won a case… well, there was simply nothing like it. And she used to win often. The adrenalin would keep her going for days.

*

Luckily, she’d timed it well with the wine and Chris had agreed, no doubt buoyed by the thought of the extra income from her salary. While he earned well, the pressure to succeed was constant and with the two of them working, perhaps he would be able to take it a little easier, thought Claire, as she finished reading the story to Jamie with her best impersonation of a Gruffalo. She knew how stressful it was relying on one salary especially with their high standard of living – their mortgage payments alone were eye-watering. But as Claire finished reading and closed the book, the little mouse safe in the wood eating his nut, she knew she was ready to take on more demanding and lucrative cases.

*