I sigh and tug the cap off my head. There’s no point in pretence any more. ‘I’m a senior nurse in the A & E department of Tunbridge Wells hospital,’ I begin. ‘Luke joined us a few months ago. I didn’t know he was married. I wouldn’t have gone near him with a bargepole if I so much as suspected he was married.’ Now that I’ve started, the words are pouring out of me faster and faster, like an unstoppable tide. ‘He never mentioned a wife. He told me he lived with you, that you needed round-the-clock care and that’s why he could only meet me at certain times of the day, because he had to get back to you. He said we could only be together at my flat because you were confused and wouldn’t understand who I was.’

She sighs. ‘You’re having an affair with him.’

The tears are pouring down my face now. ‘I’m such a fucking idiot!’ I cry. ‘He told me he was single and I believed him.’

‘If you believed him, why did you come here?’

‘My sister. Her husband is in the pharmaceutical industry, and she got him to do some digging around Milton Keynes⁠—’

‘Ah. Let me guess,’ she interrupts. ‘They found out about poor Lucy.’

‘Lucy?’

Richenda sighs. ‘I believe you when you say you didn’t know Luke was married. In truth, nothing you’ve told me apart from the fact that I’m supposed to be mentally frail is a surprise. The truth is that this is pretty much an exact repeat of what happened in Milton Keynes. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Tilly, but it seems my younger son hasn’t learned his lesson.’

‘That’s another thing,’ I tell her as I glance at the wall again, trying to digest what she’s told me so far. ‘He told me he was an only child, that his father walked out when he was small and has emigrated to Australia. Is that all lies too?’

‘He’s certainly not an only child,’ Richenda says firmly, pointing at one of the pictures I saw earlier. ‘That’s his older brother, Matthew. They might look alike, but their personalities are chalk and cheese, thankfully. Have you ever read The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?’

‘No.’