Where was she going to do it? She couldn’t go to a café and use their toilet – they might wonder why she was taking so long. If she didn’t do it now, who knows when she would get time today. And she wanted to know for sure. She needed to know. There was a department store opposite. They must have a ladies’ room.

Somehow, Shannon negotiated her way through the cosmetic counters and the impossibly tiny and beautiful French women who manned them. Shannon was slim and pretty fit, but she hadn’t had a waist like theirs since she was seven. No wonder it was so difficult for her to buy clothes over here. And that was potentially only going to get worse. Heavy perfumes fought each other for supremacy; she could barely breathe. Where were the damn toilets?

When she found them, there was such a long queue that she almost lost her nerve. For a start, she was now going to be late meeting Kate from the train – she hated being late – and there was also a rather unpleasant aroma in the vicinity. But the alternative – waiting another day – was unthinkable. Just do it.

She tapped her foot. She could use the time in the queue wisely by getting the instructions out of the box and reading them through. But they didn’t look to be a very tolerant crowd and if she did that she may as well write ‘whorebag’ across her forehead. Or whatever the French equivalent was. Le whoresac?

When she was first in the queue, a woman with a small child emerged from a cubicle, taking an interminably long time to get out of the way. Come on. Come on. Then the child realised she had left her toy behind and they went back for it. Very slowly. Shannon hoped her frustrated scream had stayed inside her head.

Finally. She was in a cubicle. She located the test box in her bag and pulled out its contents. Of course the bloody instructions were in French. Shannon had decent business French, but specific vocabulary still tripped her up. She knew première meant first and matin was morning. Was she supposed to do this in the morning? According to her watch it wasn’t quite midday, so that should be fine. Shouldn’t it? Now she just needed to work out what to do.