Caroline forced a smile, before taking a sip and swallowing it, doing her best to hide her natural reaction. ‘Nothing,’ she said, rubbing his arm. ‘It’s lovely.’

Fifteen minutes later, Caroline and Mark were sitting on the sofa in their living room. Mark had lit a couple of candles and put on a romcom film he thought Caroline might enjoy. But as he looked over at his wife, he could see she’d already fallen asleep.

7

The gentle buzzing of the phone alarm wrenched Caroline from her sleep, and she rolled over and looked at her bedside clock. Unfortunately, the alarm was right yet again. It was time to get up.

She blinked a few times as she recalled the previous evening. She didn’t remember coming up to bed. The last thing in her memory was sitting down in front of the TV with a glass of wine that smelled like vinegar.

She got up, put on her clothes and went downstairs. Mark was in the kitchen getting the kids’ stuff ready for school while they ate their breakfast.

‘Morning,’ he said, noticing her come in. ‘Sleep well?’

‘I think so, yeah. You?’

‘You were dead to the world last night. Didn’t even wake up when I carried you upstairs.’

‘You carried me up?’

Mark laughed. ‘Just about. Thought I was going to drop you at one point. You mumbled something about a flood, then started snoring again.’

‘Sorry.’

‘Don’t be. You clearly needed the sleep. Listen, I’ll walk the boys to school. You take the extra time to wake yourself up.’

Caroline smiled and kissed her husband. He had an uncanny way of knowing when she needed him to step up to the plate. She watched as Josh quietly ate his cereal, hyper alert to any early-morning anxiety that might show on his face. He’d improved immeasurably since the move to Rutland, each of the family able to put their London troubles behind them, but she knew she would always be extra vigilant when it came to her eldest son. The bullying he’d suffered at his Cricklewood comprehensive would, she knew, cause him long-term damage. There was no doubting he was a different boy now. Quieter. More private. More reserved. She silently grieved his lost innocence and the carefree charm he’d always exuded, but which now lived on through his younger brother.

Archie was blissfully oblivious to all that had gone on. To him, this was an adventure. Caroline loved Archie’s outlook on life, and wished it was one she could have herself. But what was most painful was that this had been Josh just a couple of years earlier. She’d fight with every bone in her body to make sure Archie didn’t lose his innocence in the same way.