‘Sure do, ma’am,’ Ellis said casually, giving Gypsy another stroke and making Grace gulp. People were passionate about pets and so she wished Ellis would just put the cat back down on the ground, because who knew what this woman was going to do if he didn’t. She looked fierce, with her hands planted firmly on her hips, blue eyes blazing and her nostrils flaring, and Grace secretly felt a little bit in awe of her fearless boldness.

‘Good. Then step away from my cat right away, or I’ll …’ She paused as if deciding on the appropriate repercussion for Ellis if he didn’t do as she’d instructed, ‘I’ll get over that gate and take her right off you and then you will be extremely sorry. What are you, American?’ she demanded in a deadly voice.

‘Yep,’ Ellis replied, his face a mixture of apprehension and amusement.

‘Well, I can tell you that I have stood up to far bigger Americans than you before,’ she started, pointing a pretty sparkly gold-painted fingertip in Ellis’s direction. Grace surreptitiously inspected her own raggedy nails and made a mental note to venture to a salon some time soon as part of her rejuvenation plan. ‘Oh yes, a ginormous pretend cowboy at JFK airport! And he had a clenched fist this close to my face too!’ And she lifted a balled hand up to her own face to demonstrate the proximity. ‘After I messed up all his travel documents.’

‘Georgie, I don’t think we nee—’ the guy called Tom started, but the woman carried on with,

‘And a Russian businessman. I escaped from his car after he tried to seduce me with some massaging seat contraption and, you know, it turned out that he was an illegal arms supplier to the Bratva – that’s the Russian mafia in case you didn’t know. So, come on … step away from my cat. Pass her through the railings right now.’ And the woman pushed her arms out towards Ellis.

Grace held her breath, hoping Ellis would oblige as she could see out of the corner of her eye that the gorgeous-looking guy was shaking his head, but she couldn’t be sure if he was bemused by the way the woman was handling things, or if he was sizing Ellis up to give him a punch in the face if needs be.

‘Ellis, please. Hand the cat over,’ Grace said, then turned to the woman and added, ‘I’m really sorry, we didn’t mean any harm. We came here hoping to find someone who might have known, um … err, a friend of ours. She used to live here in this villa—’