‘Because he didn’t want to lead her on. Although he loved her he knew there was no future to the relationship. I’ve told you he was an ambitious man. He wasn’t going to risk scandal and losing the prospect of high office by leaving his wife.’

‘Not even when he found out that Kate was pregnant?’

‘You know about that?’ Lomax looked at George cautiously, with respect. ‘No. Especially not when she was pregnant. The press would have had a field day. He’s very conscious of his image is our Marcus and he would have come across not only as a lecherous old bastard, but also as bloody careless.’

‘Did Miss Craven expect him to marry her?’

Lomax shrugged. ‘I don’t know what she expected. She didn’t discuss it with me.’

‘But you knew she was expecting a baby?’

‘Look, George! I’ve had six kids. I’ve got an instinct for these things.’

‘You might have suspected,’ George said. ‘But did you know?’

There was a pause.

‘Yes,’ Lomax said in the end. ‘I knew. I caught her sobbing her heart out at her desk early one morning. She told me then.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing. What could I do? She knew Grenville would never leave his wife and make an honest woman of her. I expected her to go somewhere discreetly to get rid of it.’ He paused again. ‘I offered her money,’ he said. ‘She turned it down. I told her to think about it and come back to me if she needed help. She never mentioned it again so I presumed old Marcus had coughed up.’

Lomax would be a sympathetic employer, George thought. He imagined the MP trying to comfort the girl, desperate not to sound judgemental, distressed by her tears.

‘You had no suspicion that she was considering suicide?’ he asked.

‘No.’ Lomax paused. ‘These days you expect girls to take something like that in their stride. They seem so sophisticated, so …’ he groped for the word, ‘… unsentimental.’

But Kate Craven had not been sophisticated, George thought. She was a country girl. She wouldn’t have the confidence of a Sarah Keays to come into the open and face the press. And her desperation was caused not only by the baby – as Lomax said, these days you could take steps to deal with an unwanted pregnancy. It had been Grenville. He had betrayed her and let her down when she needed him.

‘I found her body, you know,’ Lomas said suddenly. ‘I was going to a conference in Brighton and I wanted her with me to take notes. I’d arranged to pick her up from her flat. She must have timed the thing so I’d find her. She’d known I’d be discreet…’

‘Was there never any gossip surrounding her death?’ George asked. ‘Rumours linking her with Marcus Grenville?’