“Who is this, Jackie?” Dan asked, walking slowly up the two steps from the kitchen and along the passage towards them.

“Come on, Stephen, for God’s sakes, let’s go,” Jackie murmured urgently at the man.

Dan heard every word. “Stephen. Oh, for heaven’s sakes, it’s the wonderboy Stephen.”

Stephen turned and gave Dan an uncertain smile.

Dan let out a long whistle as everything became clear in his mind. “So, Jackie, this is your reason for feeling so guilty, is it? The wonderboy Stephen.” Dan looked hard at the man. “Tell me, Stephen, how long have you been bonking my wife in my own house?” The smile slid from Stephen’s face and he turned to look at Jackie for support.

“I’ll be back for the rest of my things later, Dan.”

“Oh, will you? Well, you’d better get yourself a bloody great van, because you can take our bed with you as well. I would hate to deprive Stephen here of his shagpit!” He spat out the words only inches from the young man’s face, and he noticed with pleasure that he flinched as spittle shot into his eye. Dan shook his head. “Well, at least you had the decency to send the girls away so that they didn’t have to listen to you rogering each other all night.”

Jackie took hold of Stephen’s arm once more and guided him out of the house. “Come on, Stephen, let’s get out of here before he gets violent.”

But strangely enough, Dan had not one instinct towards physical violence. He just felt sad and tired and pretty much emotionally drained. He simply watched as Jackie and Stephen pushed and jostled each other awkwardly down the short path. They opened the gate and turned out onto the street, and Dan stood listening to the fast tap-tapping of Jackie’s high-heeled shoes and the clattering wheels of her pull-along suitcase on the pavement as she hurried away to put the greatest possible distance between herself and her husband and her home.

28

Despite the emotional turmoil and heartbreak that had been caused by Jackie’s departure, Dan did take Millie and Nina skiing at Christmas, having managed to pick up a cheap deal on a cancelled holiday in Andorra. It was the best thing he could have done. They were up on the slopes every morning at nine-thirty and they skied hard all day, thumping out their anger and frustration on the mogul fields until they heard the hooter sound out for the final cable car to take them down the mountain. And when they returned to the empty house in Clapham on New Year’s Eve, the excitement of a party at Rebecca Napier’s house that evening and the prospect of returning to Alleyn’s in just a few weeks’ time helped to keep the spirits of Millie and Nina buoyant.