‘I bet you do, you bad girl.’

He tried to kiss her, but she pushed him away again. ‘You like to be in control, don’t you?’ she purred. ‘You like everybody to know what a powerful man you are.’

‘Come here, and I’ll show you just how powerful I am.’

She leant in as close as she could bear. ‘You like to drown defenceless kittens, don’t you?’ she whispered, lighting the touch paper and standing over the firework rather than retreating to a safe distance. ‘What’s wrong, George? Cat got your tongue?’ She waited, but he failed to respond. Perhaps she’d been too subtle. Amongst his host of crimes, he may have no recollection of Emma’s kitten.

Beyond the curtains, the guests clapped as a tune ended. As the next began, George shoved Lou violently, catching her off guard. Had it not been for the door behind her, she would have landed on the floor. His meaty hands pressed her shoulders back against the glass.

‘Mandeville’s been dripping poison, I see,’ he hissed in her ear. ‘What’s your game? Are you in league with him?’

‘No … no … it’s not him.’ She tried to turn her face away.

‘Ah, what’s this? Is the little girl frightened? If I were you, I would be very frightened. Very frightened indeed.’

Her heart thumped. She scrabbled around in her head, desperate to work out how to escape this situation. Something Stephen had taught her when they were small came rushing back. When a boy in her class had spent a whole term bullying her, Stephen’s advice had been simple: “Never let the bastard see you scared.”

‘You’re the one who should be frightened,’ she said, fighting to bring her voice back under control. She had no choice but to go straight in with the big gun while she still had the benefit of surprise. ‘What about Riley? I know everything about him.’

George’s reaction wasn’t at all what Lou had anticipated. There was no look of horror or fear at being presented with his crime. Instead, he laughed. ‘I can see that Mandeville has been dripping poison after all.’

‘This has got nothing to do with Tom.’

‘No? Never reveal your soft underbelly, don’t you know that? Riley.’ He played with the name like rolling a boiled sweet around his mouth before spitting it out. ‘He was a spineless idiot. He should have learned when to hold his tongue. Thomas Mandeville this, Thomas Mandeville that.’

‘Tom knew Riley?’

‘Knew him? They practically lived in each other’s pockets at school. I may have been exiled to that hovel in Ireland, but I had my spies. Riley was under Mandeville’s spell. He fawned over him. Mandeville made him something of a protégé. I can’t imagine anything worse than being at his beck and call. There were rumours that there was more than friendship between them. Oh, wait a minute, it was me and my spies who started those rumours. Shame they never stuck. Why the shocked face?’ George stuck out his bottom lip.