‘Monkeys?’ she tried, looking more and more miffed at my lack of animal sightings – fictional or otherwise.

‘No, but I have seen some very cute animals called llamas and alpacas.’

‘I’ll show you a picture of them after this, sweetpea,’ promised Nick.

‘Are they cute?’ she asked.

‘Very,’ I told her. ‘As cute as Paddington!’

Chloe’s eyes widened.

‘Can you bring one home?’ asked Barnaby, his smile beaming through the screen.

‘Not really, baby, they’re pretty big. Plus, you know, I’m not even allowed to bring stones home. Nothing.’

Their mouths dropped at my statement.

‘What about one of those long chocolate things from the airport?’ Barnaby asked.

‘Do you mean a Toblerone?’ Nick asked him, having bought them one each on the way back from LA.

‘Yeah!’ he said excitedly.

‘I’ll have to see,’ I smiled. ‘How have you been? Have you been having fun?’

‘Mumma …’ Chloe said. ‘I went to hospital.’

‘What?’ I asked, sitting up, aware of Nick whisking the phone away from the kids. ‘What’s happened?’

‘She’s fine. Absolutely fine,’ he said, firmly. ‘But she did slip over and cut her knee open.’

‘No!’ I gasped, feeling dreadful that I wasn’t there when my baby needed me.

‘Honestly, I wasn’t going to tell you until you got home because she’s been brilliant about it and I didn’t want to worry you,’ Nick said. ‘I felt so awful but there wasn’t anything I could do.’

‘I know!’ I said, feeling his pain and knowing it could’ve just as easily happened with me at home.

‘Mumma, I got a sticker for being brave!’ Chloe called out behind him.

‘And we got McDonalds!’ added Barnaby.

Nick pursed his lips at me as he went back to the kids.

‘I have a butterfly on my knee now, under my plaster,’ Chloe said, pulling her leg out from under the covers and showing me a plaster that covered her entire knee.

‘Butterfly stitch,’ Nick muttered.

‘Wow! A butterfly!’ I said to Chloe. ‘It sounds like you’ve been so brave. I’m so proud of you. I really wish I could hug you all right now.’

‘Me too!’ said Chloe.

‘Me three!’ grinned Barnaby.

One of them getting hurt without me there was everything I feared would happen, but surprisingly, other than my maternal guilt kicking in, there was a calmness about the situation on the phone. It happened, it was dealt with, even without me there to facilitate everything and take control. It was OK.