After supper – Fortnum’s pâté with cornichons (‘Oh, very Continental,’ says Kay) and a good quiche – Kay returns to her armchair, already plumped up with anticipation, and Estelle heads towards the little staircase and her bed.

‘Nighty night, Stel,’ Kay calls out. ‘What time you off out in the morning?’

‘Early, I have to see a lawyer.’

‘That’s nice. Oh, look at him, he’s a good jiver. But he’s best on the Latin-American. One judge give him ten.’

Amanda favours big cups of Starbucks coffee in the morning. There’s something appropriately aggressive about these huge buckets of coffee. She looks up briefly as Estelle is shown in and carries on reading an email.

‘Right, Estelle. Great to see you.’

Her hair is curiously arranged in a mannish cut, parted on the side, but with two leaves of hair hanging down in front of her exposed ears.

‘Good to see you, Amanda. What can I do for you?’

‘I have ordered you a latte, by the way. Is that OK? I hear you have been doing a great job sorting out Harry’s possessions. And thank you so much for the inventory of Villa Tubal. Particularly the pictures. My job is to try to make a determination of what belongs to the trust and what to individuals for probate. As you know, holdings by the trust, based – as you also know – in Liechtenstein, are not subject to UK inheritance tax. Sir Harry’s pictures were his alone, I think. Anyway, I’m going on that assumption until anyone tells me different. Sir Harry has made a very decent provision for you in his will, forty thousand a year for life – he also topped up the pension personally – and use of the cottage at the villa for four weeks a year.’

‘Yes, he said.’

‘Now, I want to get on to a question of some delicacy. Did Lady Trevelyan-Tubal know that the trust owned the villa?’

‘Yes, I think so. She was under the impression that Sir Harry owned the house in Chelsea and that she would be left that for life, although it was to go to Julian and his children if Fleur predeceased Julian.’

‘That’s absolutely right. Julian thinks it’s too big for him now and thinks it would be better sold. But at the end of the day it is her decision.’

‘I suppose it would be.’

‘Here’s your coffee.’

A timid assistant places it on the desk. Amanda doesn’t acknowledge him. Estelle never drinks from paper cups but she sees she has no choice.

‘Now, there’s one more thing. A very small newspaper in Cornwall, we have been told, is claiming that the family trust has cut Sir Harry’s grant to Lady Trevelyan-Tubal’s first husband. What do you know about that?’

‘Nothing. Sir Harry never mentioned it.’

‘Look, we just need the background to this story.’