‘I think you’d better leave the young lady alone, sir. Come along, I’m sure we can find you someone more suitable.’

He took Henry’s arm firmly and led him from the room. Kerry watched them go and bit her lip. How did he get in here tonight? Surely Briony hadn’t invited him?

She looked at the pile of coins but the excitement had gone from her now. She leant against the table and absentmindedly rubbed her arm where he had touched her.

Henry was so deep in drink he didn’t care any more. He had arrived at the stage where a shock or a loud noise can cause one of two reactions, maudlin sadness or great rage. Unfortunately for him, he felt great rage. As he walked through the room he tried unsucessfully to shrug off the iron grip of the young man escorting him. He saw his friend John Dennings embracing a young woman in a blue gauze wrapper, her huge breasts spilling out from white silk corsets. It made him feel sick.

All this flesh around him! He could smell cheap scent and fresh sweat. He could see garishly painted lips and eyes. He could feel the sexual charge of the men around him as they feasted their eyes on a bevy of young girls. But not young enough for him. They were women in his eyes, with breasts that jutted from their clothes in a disgusting fashion, hair between their muscular thighs and under their arms.

Tommy dragged him into the hallway, trying to prevent the trouble he knew was imminent. Without thinking, he pushed Henry into Briony’s office and the two came face to face for the first time in eighteen months.

Briony stood up, shocked, and as they looked at one another, Henry seemed to grow before her eyes. He stood erect and stared into the sea green eyes that his son had inherited. He laughed, a deep bitter sound that cut into her.

‘So, the slut is working, is she?’

Tommy watched the two warily. It was as if an electrical charge had been placed between them and he stared, fascinated as Briony stalked around the desk.

‘If I’m a slut, Henry Dumas, what does that make you? I can’t think why you’re here tonight. After all, the men who come to houses like this function normally. I wonder what they would say if they knew you were fancying a little girl - the girl they all clapped and cheered, without a bad thought in their heads towards her? Eh? Well answer me, Henry. If I remember rightly, you used to have a lot to say, most of it filth!’

‘I’ll finish you, Briony Cavanagh.’

She laughed at him now, her fear of him suddenly gone as she saw him for the pathetic fool he really was.