They glided in silence for a few moments. She wished she could turn her head just to look at him, to get some reading of his mood. What exactly was happening? Why had he come here? To shout at her? Push her over? ‘. . . Exactly how mad at me are you?’ she asked.

‘Very.’

‘Right.’ She was quiet for several seconds. ‘So you’ve come here for an apology?’

‘No.’

‘No?’

‘No point. I know you’d do it again.’

‘You do?’

‘You were getting me justice, right?’

She heard the tint of sarcasm. ‘Look, I’m sorry if it was a shock.’ She couldn’t imagine how blindsided he must have been, to come off the pipe with his gold and have to sit through the most bizarre press conference of his life as he was told about her roadside coup.

‘Shock is putting it mildly.’ She felt his grip tighten around her hand.

‘But they couldn’t just get away with it. Someone had to do something.’

‘And it had to be you to do it?’

She swallowed. If she made him mad, he might let go of her. ‘Well, I had to try and do something. It was my fault everything blew up the way it did.’

He didn’t reply, didn’t tell her she was wrong. They both knew she’d brought the sky crashing down on his head.

They glided in silence for several moments. Or rather he glided, she just held on. ‘. . . Have you heard from him? Julian, I mean.’

She heard him inhale at the mention of his old sponsor’s name. ‘No. Although I saw there’s a bid for O-R Hotels. Their share price has increased twelve per cent in the past few weeks.’

‘Yes. It’s very . . . pleasing to see,’ she mumbled.

His grip tightened on her hand again. ‘Pleasing?’ he scoffed. ‘You planned it. It’s why you pulled that stunt.’

‘It wasn’t a stunt!’ she echoed indignantly.

‘No? What was it then?’

‘It was knowing that gold wasn’t going to be enough on its own. You had to do more than win to beat him. You had to shine. People had to know those things in the papers about you were all lies.’

‘I didn’t know you cared.’

Was he being sarcastic again? She couldn’t tell. ‘. . . It wasn’t just for you. It was for Matty too.’

He was quiet for a moment. ‘Well, from the things Johnny was declaring after ten pints last night, I think she’s already got someone prepared to defend her honour.’

‘Oh.’ She gave a surprised smile as he led her into the next corner. ‘Well, that would be . . .’

‘Pleasing?’

‘I was going to say, about time.’