Today she’d made him a tuna rice wrap and a little container of fruit salad to have with yogurt. Jack took the lunch she gave him from the fridge without noticeable enthusiasm.

“You could pour the yogurt over the fruit,” she told him.

Jack looked at her blankly.

She sighed. Perhaps he was still worried about Armageddon, or else the poor child was missing his Vegemite sandwich. Her attempts to give him a healthy diet didn’t appear to be paying off; he looked exhausted.

“Are you feeling OK?” she said to him. “Maybe you should stay home today?”

“Nah,” said Jack. “I’m going to Ethan’s place after school.”

She met Patrick’s eyes over Jack’s head. If she insisted Jack stay home, he would make a point of agreeing with her. He backed her up anytime she made the slightest show of authority.

“Well, an early night tonight then.”

“Definitely.” Patrick ruffled Jack’s hair in that rough, loving Dad way. “And no more looking at the computer without adult supervision. We’ll research spy clubs.”

Jack rolled his eyes.

After they left for school, Ellen looked at her diary to check what appointments she had booked before the ultrasound.

Luisa Bell.

How sadly inappropriate that on the day she was going for her first ultrasound she was treating someone for “unexplained infertility.”

Or maybe it was happily appropriate. She would put her heart and soul into doing what she could for Luisa.

A wave of nausea swept over her, and Ellen looked around for her “wellness stone.” It was the pleasingly shaped white stone she’d found on the beach soon after meeting Patrick. She’d decided to use it as part of the self-hypnosis she was trying to handle the morning sickness or the every-minute-of-the-whole-bloody-day sickness. The idea was that every time she rolled the stone across her stomach her subconscious would help the wave of nausea to recede. The only problem was that she couldn’t find the stone. The last time she’d seen it, Patrick had been tossing it up in the air while he walked around the house swearing to someone on the phone. The conversation had sounded too serious for her to say, “Hey, give me back my wellness stone!”

She sighed and made herself a cup of ginger tea instead, while she imagined her mother snorting, “Wellness stone indeed; drink your tea!”

An hour later Luisa walked up the path and nearly collided with Patrick, who was barreling out of the front door down the footpath with his arms stretched around a box of random items he’d announced he was donating to charity. He stepped aside for Luisa, nodded grimly at her, and kept walking toward the car. His brow was sweaty and his eyes were crazed. Ever since he’d got back from dropping Jack at school he’d been working at a frenzied pace, as though he’d been set an impossible deadline he was determined to meet.

If you ever wanted proof that hypnosis worked …

“Sorry about that,” said Ellen. “My, ah, fiancé is having a clean-out.”

“Oh, yes, I heard that you were getting married.” Luisa dabbed at her nose with a soggy-looking tissue. She was the very essence of a woman with a cold, as if she’d been cast for the role in a TV commercial for cold and flu tablets. Her nose was red and her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. Ellen felt her own sinuses block up in sympathy.

“You heard I was getting married?” said Ellen, as she led Luisa up the stairs. For some reason she thought of Saskia. Was she passing on the news to all of her clients?

“Patricia Bradbury,” said Luisa shortly.

Julia’s mother. Ellen had forgotten that Luisa was the daughter of one of Julia’s mother’s friends.

If Luisa knew about the engagement, did she know about the pregnancy too? Surely people knew better than to pass on random pregnancy news to a woman who was desperately trying to have a baby.

“Would you like me to make you a cup of herbal tea?” she asked Luisa, as she gestured toward the client chair. “I could make you one with lemon and honey for your cold?”

“So I’m not pregnant,” said Luisa. “But apparently you are.”

It appeared people did not know better.

“Well, yes, actually. It’s only early days—” began Ellen.

“I heard it was an accident,” said Luisa. She sniffed and grabbed a handful of Ellen’s tissues. She wiped her nose aggressively.

“It’s true that it wasn’t planned,” said Ellen carefully. She sat down and picked up Luisa’s file, which she had taken out beforehand and placed on the coffee table ready for her session.

“Maybe you accidentally hypnotized yourself when you were meant to be hypnotizing me.” Luisa gave a bitter little laugh that turned into a spluttering cough.

“This must seem very unfair to you,” said Ellen.

“You said you could get me pregnant,” said Luisa.

“I did not!” said Ellen. She would never have said that. Although it was true that she did have high hopes for her success with Luisa. Over the years she had helped a number of women with similar case histories. They had sent her effusive letters and photos of their babies; one had even named her baby Ellen in her honor.

“I want my money back,” said Luisa. “That’s the only reason I came today. You’re a fraud. You take advantage of people when they’re suffering, when they’re at their most vulnerable. I can’t believe you were recommended to me.”