If Juliet and Jasper Vander had been aware of what she was doing, then Patsy Arles would indeed have every reason to be even more afraid than she already was. But right then, they had other fish to fry. And the name of this particular piscine individual was Phyllis Raynor – although they only knew her as ‘Irene’.

They’d had enough presence of mind last night to scramble into their outdoor clothes and follow her back to a B&B a half-mile or so away, so they knew where she was based. And then they’d spent most of the night discussing their options.

It was truly sickening, they’d both agreed indignantly, to have one threat to their pampered lifestyle eliminated, only to have another raise its ugly head just days later.

‘It’s typical of that gold-digging, low-class pig to still be causing us trouble even after he’s dead,’ Juliet had raged, pacing up and down her room, fulminating with rage. ‘Now his dirty little lowlife wife – of all things – is trying to get her grubby hands on our inheritance. I won’t tolerate it, Jasper, I simply won’t,’ she’d all but shouted at her twin.

Not that Jasper was arguing with her. If anything, he was even more beside himself with rage than his sister.

Eventually they’d calmed down and agreed that they needed to tackle the situation head on. They couldn’t rely on their mother not to lose her head entirely, and actually start paying the woman. They were both aware of how much Millie liked being queen bee in her own social set, which had, hitherto, always been a cause of merriment between them. But now it was no laughing matter. The idea that she might be exposed as having nearly committed bigamy with a low-class con man would be unthinkable for her – and she’d almost certainly end up doing anything to avoid it.

And once she started paying, the blackmailing bitch would never let up, Jasper and Juliet had both agreed. Which meant they had no choice but to nip the matter in the bud, before their mother made the first payment.

It was fortunate that their unwanted visitor had given Millie until tomorrow to think things through. No doubt she’d wanted to give her victim time to stew and get more and more anxious about the cringe-making consequences of being made a public laughing stock. It made good psychological sense, the twins had grudgingly admitted, but luckily for them, it also gave them enough time to do something about it.

And the only action they could take right now, they’d concluded after hours of debate, was to be fast and brutal. Given time, they might have come up with a more refined and subtle plan – as they had for dealing with Terry Parker – but time was a luxury they didn’t have on this occasion.