Janine looked appalled. ‘I can’t. I’ve got six dogs to walk.’

‘Take them with you. They’ll break the ice.’

‘Suzi hates dogs.’

‘Then tell her you and the dogs aren’t budging till she agrees to come.’

Meredith’s enquiry about the celebrant reminded Sophie that she had been asked to check on Ronnie and the flowers.

Ronnie, she discovered, seduced by their glorious website, had gone for Fleurs Romantiques, by far the most expensive supplier around. They provided flowers for the luxurious châteaux and boutique hotels in the area at extortionate prices.

She wondered if she ought to try and talk her out of it, but suspected talking Ronnie out of anything might be too much of a challenge. Besides, it wasn’t really their problem. They had specified that all contracts had to be direct with the supplier, so it would be Ronnie who got lumbered with the enormous cost. Or poor Bill, her ex-husband.

Sophie decided instead to do what she was really good at: refining all her lists of what needed to happen when and who was responsible for what, in order to make Nicky’s wedding run like clockwork.

‘Right!’ Jackie took over, as she always did. ‘Get Suzi a large glass of red.’

Janine scuttled off, climbing over a small mountain of dogs to place the order with Guillaume.

The glass appeared and was placed in front of Suzi. Suzi, her face so gaunt that even thick layers of make-up couldn’t disguise her distress, didn’t even notice.

This was serious.

‘So what actually happened?’ Jackie enquired gently.

‘I tried really hard to think of everything he might want,’ Suzi replied in a tortured tone. ‘I kept remembering that Jerry Hall saying that to keep a man happy you had to be a maid in the living room, a cook in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom. And I was! But he kept on going on about how different we were.’ She turned towards her embarrassed audience for greater effect. ‘You’re not going to believe it, but what really seemed to get to him the most was me buying that handbag!’ Suzi raised anguished eyes on which a whole bottle of black eyeliner had been expended, giving her the appearance of Lady Macbeth as the face of Rimmel. ‘I mean, I ask you!’

Shirley, Janine and Mandy all looked at each other guiltily. Jackie was made of sterner stuff. ‘Relationships don’t end over handbags,’ she insisted, ignoring the fact that they had all contributed to the purchase of the Birkin bag in the hope of achieving just this outcome.

‘Perhaps he was right,’ suggested Janine, whose kind heart was melting a little. ‘Maybe you were just too different.’

‘But I don’t want to be alone!’ wailed Suzi.

‘We’ll look after you. Won’t we, girls?’ Janine insisted.