‘Let’s hope. Not that it’s what Deborah would have wanted for her one and only, rich though they are. Still, she’s putting a brave face on it and we have to keep telling her how pleased we all are for him, which of course she doesn’t believe.’

Daniel’s troubled past had cost Deborah and her then husband a deal of anxiety and money. His expulsions from successive private schools, usually couched in terms of recommendations for a specialist education more suited to his needs, culminated in his absconding from the last on the eve of examinations. He was eventually picked up by the police following an outbreak of rioting in Bradford, where he had been living rough. Charges relating to public disorder were not proceeded with and there followed a decade of unfinished courses, abandoned careers, temporary unskilled jobs, expensive stays in rehabilitation units and taxpayer-funded fresh starts. Eventually, following his parents’ divorce, he completed a course that qualified him as a carpenter, funded by his father as part of the divorce settlement. He found work with a small building firm in south-west London and had been a convert to Islam for a year or so before telling his parents. He changed his name to Abdul-Salaam, met and married Akela and now worked for himself.

Her family had multifarious business interests but were mainly food wholesalers. ‘I get the impression he’s more religious than his in-laws,’ whispered Sarah, as they approached the marquee. ‘Enthusiasm of the convert, I suppose. He’s stopped drinking and all that whereas they obviously have no inhibitions. But they can’t be over the moon about their beloved daughter marrying a mere carpenter rather than the scion of another wealthy Indian Muslim family. And one of Jewish origin at that, albeit non-practising. Deborah’s lot just look baffled, don’t they?’

‘His sister-in-law, Anya, seems nice. She told me Akela is a Muslim name meaning wise. It had never occurred to me. I only knew it as the name of the leader of the Cub pack.’

Anya was younger than Akela and was a trainee lawyer with a City firm. She wore a brilliant blue sari and made valiant efforts with all the groom’s guests. She was the only one to mention Charles’s job.

‘Of course, I have to believe everything my new brother-in-law tells me,’ she had said, smiling, ‘but I had a moment of doubt when he told me the head of MI6 was coming to a Muslim wedding. Is that allowed?’

Charles smiled back. ‘Almost compulsory now. We employ Muslims, have done for decades though no one knew it. But this is my – our – first Muslim wedding.’

‘I hope you feel safe?’

‘Safer here than anywhere.’