‘OK. OK. Keep your knickers on. Mind you, that’s probably half the problem. If you’d …’ She ducked the swipe of Maddy’s hand. ‘Sorry. But if you need any advice, I’m always here. Sod it, Mad. It isn’t that bad, is it?’

‘No, of course not.’ Maddy tried to smile but her teeth seemed to have gummed themselves together. ‘And if Luke can rise above the disappointment of not riding Saratoga Sun in The Derby, I’m sure I can rise above a night without Drew Fitzgerald.’

‘Luke can rise above anything.’ Suzy’s grin was lascivious, and once again she side-stepped Maddy’s hand. ‘He’s happy just to be riding in The Derby. God, I wish I could.’ Suzy blinked into the distance, her face full of dreams.

Despite her misery at the row with Drew and her misgivings about the ever-swelling crowd, Maddy hugged her sister tightly. ‘You will one day. And win it. Wait and see.’

‘Yeah, the first woman to do it.’ Suzy’s eyes widened amongst the kohl. ‘Suzy Delaney – Champion of Epsom.’

Maddy looked at her quickly. ‘Suzy? Luke hasn’t proposed, has he? You’re far too young. You haven’t known each other long enough.’ She stopped abruptly. There was a. real danger that she was turning into her mother.

‘God no! If only. I was just trying it out for size, the way you do. You know?’

‘No, I don’t actually,’ Maddy lied. She’d covered her notepad that morning with a hundred Maddy Fitzgeralds. She’d screwed up the sheet and poked it to the bottom of the bulging rubbish bin as soon as she’d got in from Peapods. ‘I’m far too mature for that sort of thing.’

Suzy was jigging up and down again. ‘There’s Mr Twice-Knightley and the bimbo stick-insect. And who’s the fat geezer with them?’

‘Jeff Henley, I should imagine. Stacey’s father.’ She sighed. ‘This could get out of hand.’

‘Oh, I do hope so. Bags I get first punch at Stacey.’

Diana and Gareth were also on the outskirts of the crowd which seemed to be swelling by the minute. Bert Maynard’s dissident sons, Paul and Phil, had joined the Pughs at the head of the throng. Balding, stocky, and dressed in cords and knitted pullovers, they looked out of place amongst the rabble-rousers. A chant of ‘Ban the course!’ thumped through the air as Barry and Sandra, Nicky, Joe, and Peanut quietly walked towards Bronwyn and Bernie. Maddy was troubled to notice that even they looked concerned at the size of the crowd.

‘Will you be all right here if I go and talk to Jason and Olly?’ Suzy asked. ‘I’ll stay if you want.’

‘No. I’ll be fine.’ Maddy waved back at the knot of apprentices and stable lads sitting beside the stream. ‘Are they having a party?’