‘Not since the last one.’

‘Do you think she’ll come round in the end?’

‘I don’t know. She’s just so determined not to disrupt her life. I know she would love it as soon as she actually had a baby; it’s just the thought of it that freaks her out. But there must be loads of women who couldn’t imagine what it would be like to become a mother, but now wouldn’t change a thing.’

‘You’re right. I’m sure she’d be a great mum.’

‘It’s really hard. We got married so young that we didn’t even really talk about it. I just assumed it would happen, and now I really am not so sure.’

‘She’ll come round.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes, she will.’ Libby crossed her fingers and hoped she was right. If there was one characteristic Jules certainly wasn’t lacking, it was stubbornness. And this was such a delicate area that it was hard for Libby to get involved. She so wanted Angus to be happy. To make matters worse, she knew that he would be the most incredible dad.

They chatted for another half an hour or so; it was so great to catch up properly with him. He was working on a new series of oil paintings following a recent trip to the Lake District. Angus was a successful landscape artist and Libby loved his expressive, colourful style, as did the majority of the art world. The value of his work was going up and up year by year. She was so proud of him. What a long way he had come since that first exhibition she had been to of his art GSCE work at school – abstract geometrical prints had been his preferred subject matter at the time. Just as well that had only been a phase, she smiled to herself.