Helena got back from taking her mother home in a state of repressed anger. She’d been keeping a lid on her outrage all day and now she nearly scraped the side of her car when she pulled up outside her home.

Jago was in the yard and came over. ‘Everything all right?’ he said as she got out of the car.

‘Fine thanks. I didn’t hit anything,’ said Helena.

‘Forgive me but you said that as if you wished you had hit something – or someone.’

In spite of herself Helena laughed. ‘Very perceptive of you. I am in a bit of a strop.’

He regarded her for a few moments as if debating the wisdom of his next words. ‘Would you like to come and have a glass of wine and tell me about it? I can no longer offer you a cat to cuddle. Zuleika and her kitten have gone back to my sister.’

‘I saw them leaving, but even without them, that’s a very tempting idea. Especially if you’ve got a fire going. I’ve spent the day in a glass house – not a heated one.’

‘With people you don’t awfully care for, I can tell. Wait till you’ve had half a glass of wine and then you can really let rip about them.’

Helena went into her own house first, to use the loo and check on her hair. Cressida always made her wish she’d spent hours coaxing it into fat curls that ended on her shoulder, like the woman who helped Lord Sugar on The Apprentice. Only Helena never quite had the time or inclination. Now, as it was a mess, she put it in a loose plait and went across to Jago’s. The thought of wine, a fire and a good old grump about her sister-in-law was calling to her.

‘If you pull your chair right up to the fire you feel some heat and, more importantly, overlook the fact you’re sitting in a building site,’ said Jago. ‘One day it’ll be my “des res” but now – well, you can see how it is.’

‘Oh, this is lovely!’ said Helena. ‘I didn’t think you’d actually have a fire, it being April and all.’

‘April is the coldest month,’ he misquoted, handing her a very large glass of red wine. ‘And I always have lots of wood that needs burning. You start on that’ – he indicated the wine – ‘I’ll bring in some bread and cheese. You don’t have to join me but I’m starving.’

‘I’m hungry too. And I’ve got shortbread we can have for pudding.’

‘Shortbread?’