This was something of a blow. She had, up until now, felt she had enough against her; shortage of capital, time, having her artist threatening to leave, without malicious interference. But if Veronica had nearly ruined Rory the first time round, she could do it again and ruin her at the same time.

‘Just as well I haven’t got a towel about my person, then, isn’t it? Or I might be tempted to throw it in.’

She met Rory at the pub he stipulated. It was not in a part of London she knew and Thea felt a little awkward going into a busy pub on her own, when she had no confidence in Rory’s punctuality. But she went in and searched the crowd for Rory.

He was at the bar, entertaining a couple of young men with Irish jokes. ‘Hey, Thea! Over here! What are you having?’

‘If you’re paying, a large one.’

‘Of course I’m paying. Jimmy, a large Paddy for the lady.’

Thea almost changed her order to a mineral water, but then decided a bit of Dutch courage, or in this case, Irish courage, might not be a bad thing. ‘Rory,’ she said firmly, when she’d thanked him for her drink. ‘I do need to talk to you. Can we go and sit down?’

‘I suppose so, Thea, but I don’t think you’re going to like what I’m going to say when you’ve said your piece.’

‘Probably not, but I’ve got to say it. I’ve got to try and make you do the decent thing. I mean, do you really want Veronica, who pulled the plug on your first show, getting the credit for discovering you?’

‘I wouldn’t if she had. But she says she always stuck up for me. She says she tried to persuade everyone to lighten up and let my show run its course.’

‘And you believe her?’

‘I have to believe her. She got me a show in one of the best galleries in London. Edward cancelled a retrospective of a really famous artist, so I could show.’

Why hadn’t Edward mentioned this to her when they were discussing whose right to Rory was the greater? Was Edward not telling Thea everything? Or was Veronica lying to Rory? ‘Who was that, do you know?’

Rory shook his head. ‘Forgotten. Someone terribly important. I’m going to have to bone up on contemporary artists. I know nothing about them.’

Thea smiled, not really amused. ‘You must ask Edward as soon as possible. In case you need to give a lecture on them.’

‘That was a low blow, Thea.’

‘You deserved it.’ It wasn’t so much a blow as a hint. If Rory did ask Edward, he might learn that not everything Veronica told him was true. She tried one more appeal to his sense of fair play. ‘So I can’t persuade you to do the decent thing?’