‘I thought it was the actress,’ he said. ‘Or was it that girl from Australia? The one whose father owns all the opal mines?’

Selina coughed lightly and tugged on her husband’s sleeve. I looked over my shoulder and saw Evan walking towards us.

‘Selina, Aleister.’ The three of them exchanged kisses as Evan resumed his easy stance by my side. ‘You’ve met Francesca.’

‘We have and what a joy she is,’ the older man confirmed and I tried very hard not to be sick in my mouth. ‘We were just on our way into the casino – won’t you join us?’

Evan sucked the air in through his teeth and shook his head. ‘We just left the casino,’ he lied, and I looked up sharply. ‘I’m sure we’ll catch up with you later.’

‘Absolutely, absolutely,’ Aleister nodded. ‘Have you seen your father yet?’

My ears prickled. Evan’s dad was here?

‘No.’

With one word, Aleister and Selina’s smiles evaporated and an unpleasant tension filled the air.

‘We’ll see you later, Evan,’ Selina said, pulling her husband away. ‘Lovely to meet you … you.’

She’d forgotten my name and no one, including myself, seemed to think she needed to be reminded of it. I watched and waited, Evan standing stiffly beside me until they were out of hearing distance.

‘They seem nice.’

‘They’re full of it,’ he replied, the clouds clearing from his face as they disappeared from view. ‘He just managed to weasel out of some tax scandal that almost bankrupted them, and she got busted a couple of years back for bribing a college to take their kid. Spent six weeks in jail for it. I’m surprised they were invited.’

The thought of Selina in the slammer was almost too much to bear. I’d seen a lot of TV shows about prison but I figured the place they sent rich people who bribed fancy colleges in America probably wasn’t the same as the place they sent the women in gritty ITV dramas. More yoga, fewer shivs.

‘Sooo,’ I said, attempting too sound casual and promptly failing. ‘Your dad’s here?’

‘He is,’ Evan said, shifting his gaze up and over my head. ‘But I’d rather not talk about my parents if that’s OK.’

But it wasn’t, not really. I knew something about him that he hadn’t told me, and I couldn’t say I liked it. Keeping our agreed secrets was one thing but this felt an awful lot like lying.

‘I don’t know if this fits in with the rules,’ I said, chewing on my bottom lip between sentences, all I could do was level the playing field, ‘but my mum passed away ten years ago.’

Evan found my eyes and I saw his soften. He knew I knew. ‘It’s been twenty-one years for me,’ he replied. ‘I was fifteen when she died.’