‘I can’t see myself dating any time soon.’ Bella checked on Glynn. ‘It’s not the dating that bothers me as much as the idea of stripping off in front of a stranger . . .’ She exhaled. ‘Sure, I can glam up the outside, but I caught sight of myself in the mirror yesterday and I’ve got this bulge of tummy that now hangs over my knickers and stretch marks that have destroyed my once immaculate boobs. Honestly, my chest looks like a map of the Nile Delta. I can’t imagine any man finding me remotely attractive. I think I might have to face the fact that the Flying Dutchman might actually be the last man to see me naked and dancing in the candlelight.’

Merrin and Ruby stared at her, and then at each other. Merrin wondered if her sister, like her, was thinking she’d never had the confidence to dance naked in the candlelight, stretch marks or not.

‘And there’s no chance of anything happening with him?’ Ruby asked gently. ‘I know you really liked him. We all did, but I can’t say I’m so keen now after how he’s treated you, just running off like that.’

‘I did. I do.’ Bella smiled warmly at her baby boy. ‘And in his defence—’

‘There is no defence!’ Ruby asserted.

‘In his defence,’ Bella carried on regardless, ‘it was not meant to be any more than a fling and, as I told Merry, he didn’t know about the baby until he was back at sea on the other side of the world. But that ship has definitely, metaphorically and physically, sailed. I hear from him, he sends money for Glynn and we get the odd text and call, but . . .’ She shook her head.

‘You could always find a man with failing sight, or better still, one that lives in a dark cave and only wears gloves. That way he won’t be able to feel your saggy skin or see it.’

‘You are not making me feel any better, Rubes,’ Bella tutted.

‘Oh, you should have said!’ Ruby laughed. ‘If it’s reassurance you’re after, then, Bells, you absolute goddess, you have the body of a supermodel and skin like peaches! In fact, scrap that, I don’t want you to think I am referring to your top-lip fuzz.’ She touched her finger to her own top lip.

‘Top-lip fuzz?’ Bella squealed, running her finger around her mouth. ‘Do I have top-lip fuzz? Did you know about the top-lip thing?’ she asked Merrin directly, who shook her head, but looked away.

‘For the love of God! Well, that’s that then: dark-cave-dwelling, glove-wearing man it is . . . And you can laugh, Ruby Mae, but in a few short months you too will be pushing a small human from your tuppence and then we’ll see who’s laughing!’

‘I hate you,’ Ruby spat.