Rory shook his head. ‘I’ve no idea. Susan’s been doing them up to now.’ He pulled out a chair and sat down. ‘Have you any more wine?’

‘When are you going to London?’ asked Thea, having retrieved her secret bottle from behind the bleach.

‘I’m planning to drive through the night. I can’t cope with London traffic in daylight.

That at least solved the problem of where he was to sleep. ‘Well, don’t drink any more alcohol. If you’ve got to drive to London.’

‘Stop fussing, Thea, and sit down and let me look at you.’

When Lara was happily eating her supper out of the washing-up bowl, Thea sat and poured herself another glass of wine. ‘So, why are you going to London? I thought you had an aversion to the place.’

Rory didn’t answer, but poured more wine into his glass.

‘I don’t want to sound like someone’s mother, but there are laws against drinking and driving, you know.’ If he drank any more, she’d end up having to offer him a bed for the night, which would involve all sorts of complications.

‘I promise you, drink doesn’t affect my driving at all.’

‘You mean, you swerve all over the road anyway?’

‘I do not and you know it.’

‘So why are you going to London, Rory?’ His body language made her wonder if he was hiding something from her.

‘To visit family. There’s a whole lot of cousins and aunts and things I haven’t seen for years. I want to catch up with them all.’

It sounded a perfectly valid explanation. No reason why she should suspect him of anything. There were members of her own family she hadn’t seen for ages. So why wasn’t she quite happy about it?

‘Tell me,’ he said, ‘how this gallery’s going. What are the chances of it coming off? Sixty-forty? Or only evens.’

‘What? Rory, how dare you!’ She was laughing, but she was genuinely incensed by his lack of faith. ‘Of course my gallery is going to come off. I have been through hoops getting the space, that’s all. Which meant borrowing money from … someone.’

She realised just in time that if she mentioned Molly he would assume it didn’t matter if Molly was paid back, because she was rich. ‘I’ve spent all day pulling up carpets, washing floors, doing everything I can to make it into the most wonderful art gallery in the south-west, and you suggest to me that it might not “come off”?’

Rory sighed. ‘Jesus, Thea, you know how to give a fellow a hard time.’