Ivy looked at Lesley while the information she had been given sank in. She collapsed on to the nearest chair, and she looked beaten, vulnerable. For a few seconds, Sharon’s heart went out to her.

‘Whatever he’s doing, it must be dangerous, if even you don’t know where he is.’

Sharon put the kettle on again for yet another cup of tea.

‘I never know where he is, and I don’t ask, Lesley. It’s a pointless exercise. If he wanted me to know, he would tell me.’

Her words annoyed her own mother, who said angrily, ‘And you are happy with that, are you? He just waltzes in and out of here at his leisure and you don’t question any of it?’

Sharon turned to look at her mother and her face was hard as she said slowly, ‘That is exactly how it is, Mum. And, do you know something?’ She was bellowing suddenly at the top of her voice. ‘That suits me down to the fucking ground! Now let it go, for fuck’s sake.’

Both the older women were shocked into complete silence. This wasn’t the Sharon they knew, the sweet girl who was all for a quiet life. This was a woman grown, who was telling them in no uncertain terms to mind their own business.

Ivy was the first to find her voice. ‘Well, I never . . . That you could talk to me like that . . .’

Sharon held up her arm like a traffic officer as she said, in a very determined manner, ‘Well, it is time you all understood that me and Lenny have our own home, a family, and we do not have to answer to anyone. Anyone at all. Am I making myself clear?’

She lit herself a cigarette and she took a long pull on it before saying evenly, ‘Now, who wants a cup of tea?’

Ivy and Lesley exchanged glances and Sharon knew that she had made her point. It had needed to be said and her Lenny would back her to the hilt when she told him. She wasn’t a schoolkid any more.

Chapter Forty-One

Maria Steel was asleep in her suite of rooms when her maid Consuela heard sounds from the master bedroom. She sighed, relieved. If the master was home, then the mistress would be happy the next day. This was a difficult household to work in; they were very volatile people and she was worn out with their antics. She went back to sleep unaware that there were, in fact, two men in her master’s bedroom, and they were robbing the safe.