It was Toby’s presence that kept Thea calm. She couldn’t shout and scream and throw things with him there. It wouldn’t be fair.

‘I’m sorry? Do I know you?’ asked Veronica icily.

‘This is Thea, the woman who made me get my work out of the shed,’ said Rory. He seemed extremely put out to her and was shuffling about like a schoolboy caught investigating his sister’s underwear.

Thea glanced at Toby. After his initial delighted greeting, he now seemed reluctant to look at her. Thea began to feel more and more certain that something very untoward was going on.

‘Oh!’ said Veronica. ‘So you’re the one.’ She came forward, hand outstretched. ‘I’ve heard such a lot about you.’

Thea took the hand, which was cool and hard, and at the same time took a good look at its owner. She was aggressively thin, attractive, though not pretty, and had that high-maintenance gloss which made it hard to tell her age. She had probably looked as she did now when she was eighteen and would go on looking like it when she was fifty.

‘Sorry,’ said Thea, ‘I don’t know your name.’ Even if I do know, perfectly well, who you are.

‘Veronica de Claudio. I discovered Rory.’ Veronica smiled. She smelt strongly of some sophisticated perfume and her clothes were the sort Thea wouldn’t know how to wear, even if she could fit into them; layers of silk, trousers, a floor-length waistcoat and a sort of embroidered panel across her concave stomach which showed her hips were no more than six inches from point to point.

‘Oh, really?’ Thea inclined her head graciously. ‘I thought I did that.’

Veronica’s eyes narrowed with pleasure. She gave Thea the sort of smile people give when delivering bad news that actually delights them. ‘Oh, I was way ahead of you. I saw Rory’s graduate show and his subsequent exhibition. In Cork Street.’

‘Oh?’ The implications of this announcement were many and Thea’s stomach was beginning to churn alarmingly, but just now, she wanted Veronica’s take on Rory’s fatal exhibition.

‘It was stunning, absolutely stunning.’

Rory had turned away and was trying to engage Toby in conversation about one of the sculptures. Whether he was embarrassed to hear his work described as stunning or felt bad about what happened afterwards Thea could only guess. Knowing Rory, the former seemed rather unlikely.

‘I thought the critics panned it,’ said Thea.

‘Oh, they did. And rightly so. Rory’s work was far too immature and his behaviour at the show even more so. I told Maxim … you know? Maxim Applozzia? You must have heard of him – he’s got three galleries in New York and is opening here next year.’

Thea nodded, hoping her ignorance wasn’t as obvious to everyone else as it was to her.