He turned, as if about to wash his hands again, then changed his mind. ‘But, Mrs Nicholls, since I suspect that you’re the kind of woman who’s going to worry anyway …’

Jude was flattered that her performance had been so convincing. ‘I’m afraid I am. A real worry-boots.’

‘… then I will just check the left breast to be absolutely certain.’

Her left breast was subjected to the same professional examination. His fingers touched a spot to the right of the nipple and then glided on. They came back to the same location. He pushed gently into the yielding flesh. He repeated the movement three more times. Then he moved round to sit at his desk.

‘I’m afraid,’ he announced, ‘that I have felt something there that could be a tumour … or, to be more accurate, something that could be becoming a tumour.’

Jude managed to produce real tears as she mumbled, ‘I knew I’d got it. I’ve known for months.’

But her real mood was far from sad. It was exultant.

Now Mrs Nicholls’s anxieties had been vindicated and she actually did have breast cancer, she asked Dr Rawley whether she should have a confirmatory X-ray. He said that might be necessary in time, but a new technique had recently been developed which could detect cancer in the system from a simple blood test.

Accordingly, he dabbed alcohol on to her thumb and withdrew a sample of blood into a small plastic bottle, which he sealed and wrote her details on. ‘That’ll go to the lab,’ he said. ‘I’ll phone you with the results within twenty-four hours.’

‘And if the diagnosis is confirmed?’

‘Then, Mrs Nicholls,’ he said with a thin smile, ‘we will embark on the process of getting you cured. For which, let me tell you, the prognosis is very good. I’ll give you the details when I call you with the results, but basically your cure will involve intensive therapy sessions with a healer and taking various prescribed dietary supplements.’

As she walked down to Smalting seafront, where Carole was waiting in the parked Renault, Jude still felt triumphant at having her speculation proved true.

But she also felt furious at the abuse of the healing profession.

‘It falls into place,’ said Carole when she’d heard about the consultation. ‘When I went to see him with my knee, he went through this routine about people going to the doctor’s with some minor ailment and not mentioning the symptoms that were really scaring them. He referred to cancer then. I think he was testing me out, seeing if I’d rise to the bait.’

‘Quite possible.’ Then Jude said, ‘Incidentally, if you’d like me to take a look at that knee of yours, I—’

‘It’s on the mend, thank you,’ said Carole crisply. To punish her for the lie, she felt a painful twinge from the knee as she changed gear.