‘Yes, Sergeant Major. Will do.’

Jackie patted him on the bum. She’d been going to give him a bit of a bollocking about their unpaid bill, but perhaps she’d better take more care of him after what he’d just said about Steph. Marriage was a precarious business.

Sophie stood proudly surveying the almost-completed bridal suite, which was not only stunningly beautiful but, thanks to her skill in finding bargains at the brocante, had been achieved at a remarkably low outlay.

After much deliberation she had placed the white-canopied bridal bed in the tower, and she was convinced it really worked.

‘What bride wouldn’t feel romantic and loved-up when she’s a princess in a tower?’ she told herself as she lay down on the bed. ‘If only I had a handsome prince . . .’ she murmured out loud, her thoughts straying to a dark-eyed young chef.

‘Don’t suppose I’d do?’ Sophie jumped up to find herself confronting Steve the builder, shirt stripped to the waist, tanned beer belly peeping out above the belt of his baggy blue jeans.

‘Thanks for the offer, Steve,’ she grinned. ‘But I just came up to admire your handiwork. You’ve done a really great job up here.’

‘Thank you. I’m a bit old for this bath in the bedroom caper –’ he pointed at the freestanding bath at the end of the bed – ‘but you young people seem to really go for it. As long as there’s somewhere private to take a piss, I tell them, cos there’s nothing romantic about seeing a man point Percy at the porcelain!’

Sophie could think of no suitable reply to this earthy assertion.

‘I suppose you all know the talk going round the village about your friends up at Fleur-de-Lis?’ he enquired.

Sophie looked even more dumbfounded at this. ‘No – what?’

Jackie would be so jealous that he was the one who got to break the news, thought Steve. ‘It’s Mr Adams. He’s only gone and moved in with that tart Suzi. It’s more Mrs Adams I feel for. She’s a nice lady. Men will be men, I suppose, but at his age he ought to know better than to be led by his ding-dong, don’t you reckon?’

‘Excuse me, Steve, I’m afraid I’ve got to dash. Something urgent to discuss.’

‘I’ll bet there is,’ Steve murmured under his breath as she left the room. ‘Like why your friend’s husband’s been such a damn fool. Still, it might make Jackie a bit nicer to yours truly.’ There was plenty of scope for that. For a start, she could stop making it clear she preferred the dog to him.