In the middle of the peace and beauty of the court, Masefield and Kim were utterly incongruous. They might have been a tableau mistakenly uprooted from the poolside of some expensive modern hotel. Kim was lying on a flowery, padded lounger, surrounded by glossy magazines. There was a viscous drink full of chunks of fruit at her side, and she was intent on varnishing her toenails. Beside her Masefield was sitting on a matching upright chair at a white wrought-iron table spread with papers. He was talking rapidly into a dictaphone, and there was a cordless telephone at his left hand.

As soon as he saw Pansy he jumped up and enveloped her in a bear-like hug, then held her face in his blunt hands to kiss it. There was no mistaking his pride and pleasure in his daughter.

‘Baby,’ he said. ‘Baby, I love you. Just seeing you makes the whole stinking world look brighter.’ He kissed her again and then looked round. ‘And where are your pals? Here. Well, introduce them to your old Dad.’

Masefield Warren’s handshake was very firm, and his eyes behind the welcoming mask of smile were narrow and shrewd. His glance flicked over Helen and lingered a moment longer on Chloe. She stared coolly back at him. He was impressive, she thought, in a faintly brutal way, and noted the physical power in the bull-like shoulders and neck as well as the lines of domineering authority in his face.

‘We’re honoured,’ he was saying bluntly. ‘We don’t get to see a lot of Pansy’s friends these days. This is Kim, my wife.’

‘You’re always somewhere else, Daddy darling,’ Pansy said mildly.

Kim’s welcome to Pansy was distinctly less warm than her father’s. She turned up her cheek to be kissed and lifted a fingertip at once to smooth away the damage. ‘Darling,’ she said in a faint voice. ‘Always jeans. I know you’re a student, but haven’t you got anything else? If you haven’t, you must come out with me this afternoon and I’ll organise you. You can’t dress like that here. We’ve got the Riccadellos coming for dinner.’

‘Kim,’ Pansy said gleefully, ‘I’ve invited Chloe specially for you. She likes shopping almost as much as you do. You can go together while Helen looks at pictures and gloomy old churches. And me …’ Pansy stretched and pirouetted on the marble, ‘… I’m going to eat wonderful food, which will be a happy change from Oxford, and watch the boys in the gondolas. Now, is there any tea?’

‘Show your friends upstairs first,’ Masefield said sharply.

Pansy started and went pink, then nodded gracefully and shepherded them away. Helen thought as she followed her friend that between her authoritative father and her near-contemporary stepmother, Pansy was still treated as a wayward child. She could guess how irksome that must be for her.