Kevin shrugged. ‘Not your concern now. She’ll probably dine out for years on the story of how she gave you refuge.’

Jez seemed to hear Sophie’s voice, saying, If I can do a good deed – for anyone, anyone at all, rich as well as poor people – I do it willingly. ‘I think it is my business. She’d not be having this trouble if it weren’t for me.’

‘You can’t go round there again. That’d make things worse.’

‘No, but I’ll send Donna to see her tomorrow.’ His personal assistant was a capable young woman, loyal, intelligent and very with it. He paid her and his other staff well over the odds to keep their loyalty. ‘She can help Sophie sort out what to do.’

‘Good idea.’

‘I’m going to bed now.’

‘About time. The doctors said you should take things easy.’

‘That’s what I’ve been bloody well doing. I’m fed up of lying around. I need to get myself a proper home, and the sooner the better. We’ll put Donna back on the job of finding me a house after she’s seen Sophie.’

With that settled, Jez went to bed, sighing in relief as he lay down between the fine cotton sheets, his body aching more than he’d admitted to the doctor or Kevin. He wasn’t sure he’d fooled either of them, though.

In the middle of the night he woke, as he often did, lying in the darkness with the day’s events churning round in his mind. But most of all it was Sophie Carr who was occupying centre stage in his thoughts. He really hated to think of such a gentle person suffering because she’d helped him out.

He couldn’t dismiss the incident, whatever Kevin said. He was responsible for her present troubles.

Who was responsible for his own troubles? Himself? Partly. He’d wondered so many times how he’d got to this point in life, alone in the world, no family or significant other, as they called it these days. And no idea of where he was going next. What were ageing rock stars supposed to do with themselves when they retired from public life? If they were wise enough to retire, that was.

But even if he stopped performing, he could never retire from the music that continually ran through his head. He didn’t want to.

Actually, he did have a family, sort of – an illegitimate son, the fruit of a misspent youth. He’d not married the mother, though he’d offered, but she hadn’t wanted to. She was from a very religious family and their brief affair hadn’t changed her devotion to her church. She’d tried to get him involved, but he wasn’t into religion.

He felt sad that he’d never known the boy, though, because it also meant he’d never met his two young grandchildren. He grinned, amused at how fans would react to the news that he was a grandfather twice over.

His main problem in life was that he was lonely. He had more than enough money, but no one to enjoy it with. He wasn’t getting married again, though. He might not be the world’s worst husband, but he wasn’t in the A league, that was sure.