I was confused. She couldn’t have lost the baby, or she wouldn’t be feeling so sick. I wondered if the baby’s father had changed his mind and come to seek her out and marry her, but I didn’t think it would be wise to ask. So I waited.

“I’ve just had a piece of good news,” she said, staring out past me to the swirling fog beyond the window. She hesitated, infuriatingly. I was itching to tell her to get on with it, but one doesn’t. “Well, I suppose in a way it’s bad news. But good for me.”

Finally I could stand it no longer. “For heaven’s sake, tell me,” I insisted.

“My grandmother died,” she said.

“I’m sorry.”

She grimaced. “I suppose I should be too, but I’m not, really. She was never the warmest of women. Always telling one to sit up straight; and why wasn’t I married? Very narrow. Very judgmental. If she’d found out about the baby, I’d have been cut off without a penny.” A big smile spread over her face. “Well, as it happens she died at the right moment, and left me quite a lot of money. It seems she disliked my stepmother as much as I do, so she only left a token amount to my father and the rest to me. I’m quite a wealthy woman, Georgie.”

“I’m so glad for you. So what will you do?”

“I understand it will take ages for the will to be settled, but the solicitor is willing to give me an advance, which means I can go to the Continent and rent a small place where nobody knows me. Not the Riviera, of course. Too many people I know there. I’m thinking Italy. Somewhere the English don’t go.”

“Not Positano, then. Or Florence.”

“Absolutely not. One of the lakes, maybe? Or a little seaside village? I’ll stay there until the baby is due, then go to Switzerland and have it at a good clinic, arrange for the adoption and come home.”

“You make it all sound so simple,” I said. “What if you look at the baby and fall hopelessly in love and can’t give it up?”

She smiled as she shook her head. “I really don’t see myself as the motherly type. But we’ll face that hurdle when we come to it. The point is that as of this moment I don’t have to worry. I’m free. I’ll find a little villa, hire a local woman to cook me divine Italian food and fatten me up, and while I’m there I’ll work on designing a new collection, then come back here and open my own salon.”

“I’m happy for you, Belinda,” I said.

She nodded. She didn’t look terribly happy. “In the circumstances it’s the best that can be hoped for, I suppose.”