‘Of course they know. Kit and I have been mates since school. He said he only had to look at me the first time I went back – when I collected Dock of the Bay – to know.’

Stumbling back against the flaking woodwork, he kissed her, moving his hands gently and caressingly over her body. She clung to him, trembling.

‘This will probably be the only time we’ll have alone,’ he said softly. ‘The rest of the evening you’ll be flirting outrageously with Charlie and I’ll be growling at Pete the Perv …’

‘You’ve definitely spent too much time with Suzy,’ Maddy reproved with a giggle, then yelped as Solomon, who had been ignored for long enough, nudged her in the back. It pushed her even closer to Drew, leaving her in no doubt that his desire for her was as strong and urgent as ever. She curled against him, breathing in the warm, clean smell of him.

‘Even Solomon is on our side.’ Drew smoothed her curls from her cheeks. ‘Oh, this is crazy. I’m not cut out for deceit and infidelity. I want to be with you all the time.’

‘No!’ Maddy jerked away from him. ‘It’s impossible.’

‘Isn’t that what you want?’

‘Of course it is. But not at the expense of Caroline’s happiness. I couldn’t live with myself – or you – knowing that we’d caused someone else’s unhappiness.’

Drew moved away, his feet rustling in the shredded paper bedding on the stable floor, then turned and faced her. ‘So what do you suggest? That I wait for Caroline to leave me? Because if so, I think we’ll both be waiting a hell of a long time.’

‘I don’t know. And don’t glare at me. Everybody, everywhere, is being unfaithful with no qualms at all, and we have to have bloody consciences. Oh, Drew, something’ll work out.’

‘I bet you still believe in Father Christmas, too.’ He held her again. ‘You’re lovely, Maddy.’

‘I’m not really. I’d love Caroline to leave you. Maybe we could get Charlie to seduce her.’

‘Caroline is non-seduceable.’

‘I know. She told me.’ She sighed and laced her fingers in his hair. ‘I think we’ll just have to go on like we are. Sort of slotting ourselves into your Caroline-free moments.’

‘And if you’re pregnant?’

‘Of course I’m not pregnant. Don’t talk about it.’

He didn’t. He kissed her instead, and it was only Kit’s cough of apology that prevented it from degenerating into something far more steamy.

‘Sorry to be a bore, but the rest of the guests have arrived. Caroline’s waiting to serve the soup.’ He smiled at Maddy. ‘She’s really worried about your stomach upset. Rosa has allegedly been sitting in the upstairs bathroom with you for the last twenty minutes.’