‘Look, of course we’d give you something from the sale,’ Cass said. ‘But the fact is that you’re really well set up. You own your house outright, you’ve got no mortgage; and you’ve got savings. You’ve presumably still got cash from when you made your share of this place over to us? And money that Duncan gave you. And even if you got through all of that, Jake is loaded. He’d bail you out, if all else failed.’

‘What, and Skye is a pauper? We’re all supposed to feel sorry for Skye because the only thing she stands to inherit is the whole of this place?’

‘Skye’s business is less lucrative than Jake’s, that’s all. Therapists make less money than entrepreneurs. That’s just a fact.’

‘She’s not a therapist, she’s a gym teacher with pretensions,’ Georgie snapped. ‘In any case, I’d never go to Jake for a hand-out. Yes, he’s doing really well, but that’s because he’s bright and hard-working. He spotted a gap in the market and he went all-out to build his business. He’s put in eighteen-hour days to get to where he’s got. In any case, money ought to be like water: it ought to go down the generations, not up.’

‘Yes, and that’s all very admirable,’ said Adam. His voice had flattened with an exaggerated kind of patience.

‘Oh, fuck off, Adam,’ said Georgie.

‘OK, look: let’s just step back, shall we? We don’t even know where the bloody VC is at this moment. We don’t need to be squabbling about it now. Let’s get to bed, and tomorrow hopefully we’ll find it and once it’s been found we can get it properly valued and then we can weigh up outcomes,’ said Cass.

Adam wasn’t around in the morning, when Georgie came down for breakfast.

‘I’m really sorry about what I said last night,’ Georgie said to Cass.

‘Telling my husband to fuck off, do you mean?’

‘God, no. Not that. If anything I ought to tell him to fuck off more often.’

They grinned at each other.

‘I meant when I was unkind about Skye’s work. I’m sorry. Of course that’s not really what I think, I was just cross.’

Cass sighed.

‘No wonder they say money is the root of all evil. Look at us, bickering. It’s dreadful.’

‘I don’t know that it’s money that’s the trouble. I think maybe unfairness is the root of all evil, when it comes down to it.’

Cass didn’t reply.

‘If I find it first I’m going to snaffle it without telling you,’ said Georgie.

Neither of them were entirely sure if she was joking.

After lunch they went for a stroll, just the two of them. Adam was very visibly keeping out of Georgie’s way.