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Seb back?’
    Maddy nodded. ‘Home and already in the bath with a large drink.’
    â€˜Just like mine. I’d better go and wake him before he dissolves.’
    Maddy shut the door behind Caro and slumped. She heard movement upstairs. Seb must be out of his bath. She offered up a little prayer that he didn’t want food or to tell her all about the exercise and that he just wanted to collapse into bed, because then she could do that too with a clear conscience.
    She unpacked another few items and then, bugger, the bathroom door opened and shut followed by the thump, thump of Seb’s feet on the stairs. Could he make any more noise? she thought, irritably.
    â€˜Whah, whah…’
    That was all she fucking needed. She waited for Seb’s footsteps to stop and go back upstairs to get Nate but, no, he carried on.
    â€˜The baby’s crying,’ he said, entering the sitting room in his dressing gown.
    Maddy stumbled past him, fighting back tears of exhaustion and frustration. ‘Of course he’s fucking crying,’ she snapped. ‘It’s all he does when some prat wakes him up!’
    She ignored the look of hurt on Seb’s face. Tough. Maybe next time he wouldn’t barge about like a sodding elephant.
    The next morning, while Nate grizzled in his bouncy chair, Maddy tackled another box of possessions. Every now and again she gave the chair a gentle push with her toe to keep it in motion, which stopped Nate’s muted wails escalating into full-blown screams. Seb was, as always on a Saturday morning, down at the gym doing a punishing fitness routine, and although Maddy had dropped a heavy hint that she could do with a hand around the house instead, he hadn’t picked up on it. She tried not to feel annoyed as she unwrapped more crockery and found space in the tatty kitchen units to store them. She had known how much he adored his rowing when she married him, only back then she hadn’t been left holding the baby. Literally.
    The doorbell rang as she slammed a cupboard door shut and, scooping Nate out of his chair, she went to answer it, hoping that it was Seb back early.
    â€˜Caro.’
    Her neighbour waved a loaf of bread. ‘Here you go,’ she said, thrusting it at Maddy.
    â€˜You didn’t have to, honest. It was only a loaf.’
    â€˜But, having cleared my debt, I am now free to borrow again, and next time it might be something really important, like gin.’ Caro grinned. She looked down at the baby in the crook of Maddy’s arm. ‘And who do we have here?’ She rubbed her finger across Nate’s cheek and was rewarded with a wail. ‘Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to upset him.’
    â€˜Don’t worry,’ said Maddy. ‘Nathan cries at everything.’ She tried hard to smile.
    â€˜That’s not a nice thing to do to your poor mummy.’ Caro looked up at Maddy and clocked the dark circles under her neighbour’s eyes. ‘Tell you what, how about a tea break. I bet you’ve been busy all morning and up since sparrow’s fart.’
    Maddy considered the endless bloody boxes that still needed seeing to and then thought, sod it. ‘That’s a brill idea.’ She flung the door wide. ‘Come in, just excuse the chaos.’
    She led Caro into the kitchen and, still carrying Nathan, she began to fill the kettle one-handed.
    â€˜Let me,’ said Caro. She gently took Nathan from his mother and dandled him on her lap. Nathan, for once, didn’t start bawling. ‘No husband?’ asked Caro.
    â€˜Fitness training,’ said Maddy as she plugged in the kettle.
    Caro raised an eyebrow.
    â€˜He rows for the army,’ explained Maddy.
    â€˜Oh, so he’s the guy who nearly made the Olympics,’ exclaimed Caro. ‘I heard on the grapevine that the regiment was getting some amazing athlete.’
    Maddy shook her head. ‘I think the story you heard has got a bit