Lucas blinked the bustling café back into focus. Even to think so condemningly felt like a crime. The baby smothered in chocolate was staring at him hard, as if she saw into the heart of his iniquity. Lucas widened his eyes in return, making his thick eyebrows dance and pulling a funny face till she giggled. The father noticed and smiled gratefully. Lucas smiled back, feeling calmer. The world, for all its tripwires and failings, was still, mostly, a friendly place. Only Moira Giddings didn’t like him. Only Moira Giddings, for some reason, wanted to see him torn to shreds.

Ten minutes later, they were settled on a park bench, Heidi in the crook of his arm with her laptop balanced on her knees, conversing with a gallery of four smiling faces, and occasionally a fifth, when Heidi’s much younger eighteen-year-old brother, Stefan, bobbed into view. Lucas had met her parents, Klaus and Erica, a couple of times in the past, and had always found them very welcoming. Engaged and energetic, running what was clearly a very successful leisurewear company, they exuded the same warm and business-like air as their daughter. The family already knew of the engagement, Heidi having – at her own request – broken the news to her parents over the weekend. Everyone was thrilled, she had assured Lucas. Even so it was a relief to see their beaming faces for himself and to enjoy the gratifying oohs and aahs when Heidi waggled her show-stopping ring.

‘You know what you are taking on with Heidi, yes?’ joked Klaus, in his brittle, excellent English. ‘She has the iron will.’