‘I’m sure you will, but you see I’ve been on the wrong end of letters like this before because of a previous lodger, and I’m not going to be put in that position again. So you’ll forgive me for wanting to know exactly where I stand. This is my house and I cannot have it put at risk.’

Tess knows when she is beaten. ‘Just open it. I don’t suppose it says anything different from the last two.’

‘Two?’

‘Sorry.’

Georgia puts a kitchen knife under the flap and slices the paper neatly.

Dear Ms Dutton,

Please respond to our client’s request for compensation for the following items:

One iPhone: £400

One spalted ash coffee table, handmade: £1,200

Payment of the enclosed invoice regarding reinstatement and repairs to the garden at 72 Craiglockhart Green, Edinburgh: £1,800

Sundry items: £300

Georgia studies the invoice.

‘This is from a gardening company. Landscapers.’

‘I know.’

Georgia looks at her watch. ‘It’s a little early, but I would like something to drink. A small whisky is in order, I think.’ She opens the tall cupboard beside the range and takes out a bottle of Glenkinchie and two glasses. ‘You need to tell me what’s happening. Don’t leave anything out.’

Tess doesn’t drink whisky, but she makes an exception. Slowly, she proceeds to tell Georgia everything. She explains about living in Europe, about coming to live with Patrick in Edinburgh, and about the text messages from Xander.

‘I blamed myself to start with. I told myself that if I really loved him, I should have noticed that he wasn’t happy. But I was wrong. If someone wants to hide something, they will. I just hadn’t realised there were questions that needed to be asked.’ She swirls the last of the whisky around in her glass and drinks it. ‘It’s made me quite cynical about relationships, I think, because people can tell lies, even to those they care about, without saying a single word. I talked to Fiona about it once and she said it’s called “lying by omission”.’

Tess can feel her throat getting tight as she tries not to cry.

‘I was a mess. We had been together for ages. I loved him so much. And everything just changed in a matter of minutes. My world disintegrated. For the first few days I couldn’t function, I couldn’t sleep or eat or anything.’ She takes a deep breath. ‘And then I super-glued his phone onto his very expensive handmade coffee table, and I got his electric drill, and I bored a hole right through the app where all the messages were, and into the wood.’ She stops, remembering. ‘And then I did something very silly.’

Georgia waits.