‘Did anything happen between you and Georgie, after I’d gone? Is that what she meant by incestuous? I want you to tell me if it did. I won’t mind. Only why would Celia have said that?’

Now it was his turn to sit up.

‘Look, Helena, it wasn’t anything premeditated. Nothing against you, I want you to know that. It was that Hamish kept bringing drugs over to the farm and then he and Cass would go off and one night we just … it just kind of happened. It wasn’t against you.’

‘It wasn’t exactly for me either, was it? How long had I been gone for? A week?’

‘I know it doesn’t sound great, but it wasn’t something that got planned or anything like that.’

Helena had begun to cry. ‘I really liked you. I thought you’d wait for me. It wasn’t as if I was away for long.’

Stephen stood and came over to her and crouched beside her. Her face was hidden in her hands.

‘I’m sorry. I’m really sorry,’ he said.

‘You’d better go. Please. Just go now,’ she said from behind her hands.

‘Helena,’ he said.

‘Please,’ she said.

‘Can I at least phone you again? In a day or two.’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. Her voice had gone squeaky.

Stephen felt furious with himself. How could he have fucked this up? Helena was a fantastic girl who’d shown him nothing but kindness and generosity and how had he rewarded her? By sleeping with her best friend as soon as her back was turned. They weren’t really going out, it was true; nothing had ever been fixed between them. But still. He’d behaved like a total bastard. He could see that, from her point of view, it made things worse that it had happened without premeditation, because that meant he hadn’t even had a thought for her. He was careless. And it was true that from the moment Georgie came into his bed, he had all but forgotten Helena.