It had been enough to send her scurrying back into the gaiety and noise of the packed living room before she had to watch a moment more of it. She’d never felt humiliation like it before in her life, and it had been both shocking and all-consuming.

As she had done then, she now firmly squashed her feelings into a tight hard ball and hid them firmly behind a smiling face and a hardening heart.

‘Very well, Mrs, er …?’

But Phyllis was far too wily for that. Instead she stepped forward and indicated a chair. ‘Do you mind if I sit?’

‘Of course not,’ Millicent responded with instant and instinctive good manners. No matter what the circumstances, it wouldn’t do to be inhospitable. She could almost hear her nanny’s voice in the back of her head lecturing on the responsibilities befitting the mistress in her own home. ‘Children, why don’t you run along and let … my guest and myself have a little chat.’

‘We’re not ten years old, Mother,’ Jasper snorted, annoyed. He eyed the newcomer with a mixture of hostility and admiration. She was, after all, very good-looking and his interest was fully aroused.

‘Oh come on, Jasper, let’s leave them to it,’ Juliet said, shooting daggers at him. Her twin opened his mouth to argue, then caught the quick, furtive shake of Juliet’s head and sighed. He was used to paying attention to Juliet at times like this. His sister was rarely wrong when it came to judging her own sex.

‘Fine. As if I want to listen to gossip anyway,’ he drawled, going for rude sophistication and, shoving his hands deeply in his trouser pockets, slouched out of the room behind his twin.

But Juliet turned instantly they were out in the hall. Putting a finger to her lips to quieten him, she reached for the door handle and made a great show of shutting it firmly. But she didn’t remove her hand from the handle and after a few moments, very carefully began to lower it, then nudge the door open, just an inch.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough. As children they’d often eavesdropped on the grown-ups’ conversations, (you learned all sorts of eye-opening things that way) and it didn’t take Jasper but a second to catch on. Just as when they were little, Juliet dropped to one knee, turned her face to one side and stuck her ear to the gap. Jasper, standing over her and upright, did likewise, his own ear pressed against a spot higher up on the doorframe.

Neither attempted to whisper to each other, knowing that was a sure way of getting caught. Instead they just listened intently, saving any discussions for later, when they were alone in one or the other’s bedroom.

Chapter 25