Maddy bit her lip and didn’t dare to look at anybody. Drew’s thigh pressed reassuringly against her own.

‘I’m sorry.’ Fran’s voice was small. ‘So sorry.’

‘Actually,’ Luke surfaced from Suzy’s neck, ‘it isn’t me you want to have a go at, Rich. It’s Mitchell D’Arcy. He owns Saratoga. He picks the jockey. I’d stand down if he’d put you up.’

‘Oh, would you?’ Suzy’s eyes were wide at this magnanimous gesture. ‘Really?’

‘Yes.’ Luke returned to working his way under the polo neck. ‘It’s the owner’s decision – and I’d feel the same way as Richard does in his situation.’

‘Don’t want no shyph … shymph … shymphany … from you.’ Richard glared. ‘You’re a shit.’

‘We’d hoped that Maddy might marry her last boyfriend.’ Mrs Beckett’s voice soared above the embarrassed murmurs. ‘And of course, she would have had babies by now.’

‘I don’t want babies.’

‘Of course you want babies, Maddy, love. Every woman wants babies. You and Peter made a lovely couple.’

‘Oh, Peter?’ Caroline glanced across the table. ‘He was the one I met yesterday, wasn’t he, Maddy?’

‘Yes.’

Fran was glaring. So was Suzy. Drew had withdrawn his thigh.

‘He was here yesterday when I called in,’ Caroline continued, tightening the noose around Maddy’s blushing throat. ‘He’s very handsome. Like a young Robert Redford.’

‘He and Maddy were together for years.’ Mr Beckett helped himself to another pasty. ‘They met at our place, you know?’

‘No. I didn’t.’ Drew looked at Maddy. ‘I don’t think you ever explained how you met?’

‘We keep a little hotel,’ Mr Beckett ploughed on. ‘Peter was staying with us for a few days. He was on one of his business trips. Maddy had just finished university and was working for us as a cleaner. She was cleaning Peter’s room when they met and –’

Maddy staggered to her feet. ‘I’ll just go and warm the apple pie.’ Any minute now her parents were going to reveal that she’d lost her virginity in their front bedroom. ‘If everyone will excuse me.’

‘So that’s where you learned your skills.’ Drew’s voice sliced like a laser. ‘Your cleaning skills, of course. That’s why you’re so wonderfully efficient at running Shadows.’

‘Yeah.’ Suzy regarded her sister through narrowed eyes. ‘But I always said she should call it Scrubbers.’

Chapter Seven

‘Goodness!’ Mrs Beckett looked up from the table as Maddy re-emerged from the kitchen bearing the apple pie and jugs of cream on an unsteady tray. ‘What took you so long? Ooh, Maddy, two pastry courses? Are you sure that’s suitable with all these jockeys?’

Maddy gritted her teeth, and did a quick recce round the table. They all looked blissfully happy; manically drunk, but happy. Luke and Suzy still appeared to be fully dressed. Richard was asleep.

‘Yes, Mum. Richard and Suzy can eat anything and stay like sticks. Luke,’ she shot a glance across the table, ‘I’m sure, will work his off.’

Luke grinned at her and she was blushing as she sat down. Drew had still withdrawn the reassuring thigh, and accepted his pudding with a nod. She wanted to take his face in her hands and kiss the anger away.