More than the telephones had changed, Anissa thought, looking around the grimly sterile hospital waiting-room. When had the men in charge decided that all babies should be born in such unpleasant surroundings, rather than in the comfort of the mother's own home? She leaned against a thick concrete window ledge and looked around at the harsh lights, plastic furniture and cold tile floors, then shivered.

David was right by her side, a place he had barely strayed from since the moment ...