I had come awake a while ago, not long after I had drifted off into a tired sleep, my children beside me. Despite having an enormous bed, they managed to zero down to the space around me. I smiled. They were now in a tangled heap of arms and legs, in the centre of the bed. Claude kept stroking the earlobe of the person beside him, a gesture that comforted him, I had noticed. Now he was doing that to Piers in his sleep. He had tried it with Ria who had slapped his hand away fiercely, irritated inspite of being fast sleep. Piers, calm and collected as ever, allowed...