‘But David Baxter and his set are so scruffy, darling. It’s all very well working with them, but in your own time you don’t need to be with people who obviously have no idea how to behave. And I can’t imagine why you need to buy things like that dreadful astrakhan coat and the cheap trousers you were wearing in the Daily Mail photograph. You have so many wonderful things in your wardrobe that are—’

‘You can wear whatever you like these days. It’s called freedom – like throwing away your corsets and stays at the beginning of the century.’ Camilla was smiling. Marina might be ill, but the core of her remained unchanged.

‘I saw your name in the paper again this morning,’ Marina went on, her voice now shaded with fear. ‘Apparently you were in Ad Lib until four in the morning on Saturday. I am told it’s full of people taking drugs.’

‘I don’t take drugs, Mother, except for an occasional joint, which might even be good for me. I learned my lesson in Rome. You know that.’

‘I don’t think you’re careful enough, darling. You have so many undesirable hangers-on. You may be very “in”, as they say, but you still have to think of your reputation and your future.’

‘No one has what you would call a reputation these days,’ Camilla said. ‘Everything’s changed, Mother. All that rubbish about stiff upper lips and stiff upper classes has gone out the window. Half the country’s landed gentry are queuing up to get into Ad Lib and be seen with Baxter. How are you feeling today?’

‘Like a hideous old crone with rheumatism. All I need now is a stick and knitted stockings that wrinkle around my knees.’ Marina’s laugh was thin and high. ‘I have an appointment with the medicine man at four.’

Camilla turned over in bed and looked at the clock. It was almost eleven and she had to be in the studio at twelve. She looked like nothing on earth. Felt like hell, after a party last night to show off a new line of jewellery. It had been a long evening.

‘I’m leaving for work in half an hour. If I’m finished at the studio in time I’ll join you in Harley Street and hear what Dr Ward has to say.’

‘No, you don’t have to do that.’

‘Even so, I’ll try and get there.’

‘I’m not going to see David Ward this afternoon.’ Marina hesitated. ‘I’m going for another kind of blood test.’

‘Perhaps we could see a film afterwards,’ Camilla suggested.