I think about it for all of two seconds. ‘Not at all. Ian can’t pester me, and that has to be a good thing.’ I stay quiet for a few minutes. ‘He wasn’t always so awful, you know,’ I say, as if to excuse my appalling taste in men.

‘Don’t worry. People can hide their true selves until the chips are down, and then we get to see the ugly side. Nobody’s nice when a relationship is ending. There’s a desire to hurt as much as you’ve been hurt yourself, and only the strongest behave with dignity.’ She indicates right without, as far as I can tell, checking her mirror. ‘Having said that, it sounds to me as if Ian is a special case who’s occupying more space in this world than he warrants.’

I’m not sure what she means, but right now any criticism of Ian sounds good to me.

Thea turns and gives me a brief smile. ‘Not far now,’ she says as we turn off onto a wide, leafy road that has been cleared of snow.

It looks as if someone has been out with a shovel in front of each property and everywhere is pristine – a far cry from the slushy mess on the streets close to my home. Some of the houses are impressive in this obviously wealthy area. I should have known that Thea and Garrick were well off, given the way Thea dresses and the wonderful jewellery she always wore at dinner, but I hadn’t imagined anything in this league, and as she turns into a narrow lane I realise that I haven’t seen anything yet. The hedges are high with tall overhanging trees, and the houses I glimpse briefly are set well back from the road. Each and every one of them is amazing.

Thea then turns onto a well maintained but unmade track, and after about half a mile swings onto a gravel driveway. Finally I see the house. It is all I can do not to gasp at the enormous, sprawling white building with black-timbered gable ends, surrounded by undulating snow-covered lawns and neatly trimmed shrubberies. There is no defined shape to the property; it has at least four different roof heights, each with a gable facing in a different direction. The external walls are mainly rendered and painted, although parts of the ground floor are finished in stone, and there are a number of bay windows. It looks as if it may have once been symmetrical, but over the years wings have been added haphazardly. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

‘Wow,’ is the best I am able to offer.

‘We like it,’ Thea says with a hint of pride. I’m not surprised.