Ruby’s mum Louise was such a gossip, she’d have been straight on to Mum with a full report. Izzie says she’s been getting off with your boyfriend – did you know about this, Emma? And she’d told Dad, too? Oh my God. This was a disaster. She was never going to live this down.

Her mum came into the room just then, her face utterly grim, and shut the door behind her. ‘Have you any idea what I’m about to say?’ she asked tightly.

Izzie burst into horrified tears. ‘Yes,’ she sobbed.

Chapter Twenty-Four

‘What on earth,’ said Em, ‘has been going on? I don’t understand. Why is your dad ringing me up saying these terrible things about George? Why have I got missed calls and texts from Louise, saying I need to ring her back urgently, she’s worried about you?’

Izzie had gone completely white and was gulping with such huge sobs she could hardly speak. ‘It was a . . . a joke,’ she said, not looking at Em. ‘I didn’t mean . . . It was a private chat.’

Em still couldn’t understand what had actually happened. ‘Your dad is under the impression that . . .’ It was hard to get the words out. ‘That you and George have . . .’ She stalled again. ‘Well, that you two have – I don’t know how to say it. Got naked and copped off.’ She stared at her weeping daughter, incredulous. ‘Why would he think that? Did you tell someone that?’

Izzie put her head in her hands. ‘Go away,’ she sobbed. ‘Please go away, Mum.’

There was no way Em was going anywhere. ‘I don’t think so,’ she said, sitting down next to her on the bed. It went against all her maternal instincts not to soothe her, when Izzie was in such a state, but she felt too jangled by Dom’s phone call, by this weird, unpleasant conversation. She took a deep breath, remembering the black bikini and Izzie’s peachy young body. She had to ask. ‘For my own peace of mind,’ she said, ‘I need to know the answer to this. Has something happened between you and George? Anything?’

Izzie shook her head, tears dripping from her chin. ‘No,’ she said in a tiny voice.

Thank Christ for that. ‘Are you sure? Nothing? He hasn’t made you feel . . . uncomfortable in any way, or . . . or . . . touched you?’

‘No!’ Izzie was shuddering, still in her soaking wet top. Em picked up her dressing gown from where it had been flung on the floor and draped it around Izzie’s shoulders. Okay, well, that was something, she supposed shakily. Not that she had doubted George for more than a single freakish second, but all the same. Good to have it confirmed.

‘So . . . Look, talk to me,’ she said, wanting to establish the facts before she had to speak to Dom again. Louise too, for that matter. ‘What’s this all about? I don’t understand.’