A selection of their children lay in a line on the floor also watching the antics of Jean-Luc Picard and his intergalactic shenanigans. Kelly was upstairs, the beat of her Robbie Williams CD loud enough to vibrate the ceiling light. Lee was eating his reheated dinner from a tray balanced precariously on his lap. Archie was wedged between them, sucking the nose off one of Daisy’s cast-off Beanie Babies. Edie always thought that they should try to eat together more often as a family, but idealism and realism never quite seemed to collide in this house and Lee was so often late home from work that the children would end up biting the legs off the furniture if they had to wait for him. Lee did something in computers. Edie was never quite sure what. She was only glad that it paid well as they managed to get through money like water with this lot who did insist on growing at alarming rates. Edie was positive that she and Lyssa had never grown at such a reckless speed—but that may have been due to the fact that most of their diet had been formed by a rather eclectic and limited selection of dishes churned out, more often than not, by her rather intense older sister. Toast had featured heavily on the menu for several years. Her heart did a worried little palpitation as she thought of Lyssa thousands of miles from home, all alone. Despite the fact that all her children were computer wizards—with the notable exception of Archie, who no doubt would join them in due course—she’d never found the time to master even the basics of email. Perhaps she’d blackmail one of the kids into sending a message for her, just to make sure Lyssa was managing okay. Though quite what she’d do if her sister wasn’t managing, heaven only knows—worry a bit more, she supposed.

‘Lee…’

‘Mmm…’

‘Do you wish we’d never had…these?’

Her husband looked at her, chip half-chewed.

‘You know…if we hadn’t had children and we’d done something more with our lives.’

‘I heard that, Mummy,’ Daisy said.

‘Be quiet and watch the television. I’m talking to Daddy.’

‘What more do you want to do?’

Edie teased out a strand of her hair and nibbled it. ‘I don’t know.’

Daddy seemed rather perplexed. ‘It’s a bit late to be thinking like that now.’

‘I know,’ Edie admitted. ‘I was just doing a bit of “what if”.’

‘I don’t think about it,’ Lee said.

‘I don’t really,’ Edie agreed. She spent most of her time thinking what to feed them all for dinner that night. ‘It’s just with Lyssa going off. It started me wondering. Do you wish we’d travelled before we settled down?’

‘Not really,’ Lee said. ‘I like Devon.’