Fiona smiles. ‘It would be such fun, though.’

‘It’s a beast. Isobel was the only person who could get any sense from it. You have to coax it, and know its ways. It was always warm and cosy in the winter in here, but in the summer it was roasting and not pleasant at all. And it ran the hot water, so if you let it go out then your clothes went unwashed, and there were no hot baths either.’ She raises her arm, sniffs her armpit theatrically and pulls a face. ‘We started getting smelly pretty fast.’ She points at the table.

‘Shall we eat?’

*

There is homemade pitta bread, bulgur and butternut salad studded with pomegranate seeds, and courgette and yellow peppers dressed with lemon and oregano. And Eton mess, and what turns out to be not Prosecco, but Cava. It’s a good meal. The four women chat and laugh, but Tess can’t forget the reason for the visit. After the last of the meringue has been scraped from the bowl and the dishes have been cleared away, she knows that she has to get this over with. She looks at Cait. ‘I think Fiona has told you about my predicament? What do you think?’

‘You aren’t denying it was you who did the damage?’

‘Oh no, it was definitely me.’

‘In theory, Fiona says you need to pay the bill, but . . .’

‘But?’

‘But it may be that the cost of the reinstatement is very, very small beer when compared with the cost of years of unpaid tax on rental income.’

‘Pardon?’

‘Fiona mentioned that when your ex was out of the country he rented his house out?’

‘Yes, that’s right.’

‘And he didn’t declare the income?’

‘No. He said he didn’t need to because it was a private arrangement, not done through an agency.’

‘Unfortunately for him, that’s not the case.’ Cait takes a sip of Cava. ‘And he would also need to have had a buy-to-let mortgage, not a regular one. Banks are pretty fussy about that. And insurance companies too.’

‘But I couldn’t possibly drop him in it.’

Cait pulls a calculator from her bag. Her fingers hover over the buttons. ‘Have you got any idea how much he charged?’

‘No idea, but it’s a nice three-bedroom house in Craiglockhart.’

‘OK. If we play with some numbers for a minute and say that hypothetically the rent was a thousand a month? That’s twelve thousand a year. How long did he rent the house out?’

‘I’m not sure, at least eight years.’

Cait stabbed at the screen. ‘Ninety-six thousand pounds.’

Tess goes white. ‘But if he had to pay tax on all that, it could be, well, quite a lot would be an understatement.’

‘And you’re not going to tell Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, but he doesn’t know that.’

‘I’m not?’