Il faut regarder toute la vie avec les yeux des enfants.

Estelle has seen the kiss and Harry’s reaction: Fleur is tormenting him.

As Fleur strides into the house, Estelle says, ‘Is everything all right, Lady Trevelyan-Tubal?’

‘What do you think? He hates me.’

‘Oh I don’t think he’s . . .’

‘He hates me and you have turned him against me.’

She is crying now. And as she rises up the grand staircase Estelle can hear a gulping sob. It’s a baby’s sob. A spoilt baby’s sob.

Estelle goes out to Harry. He turns, staring, fearful; but he smiles when he sees her.

‘Dear Harry,’ she says, ‘how are you? Lunch is nearly ready.’

‘Fleur.’

‘Yes, she’s here. She’s gone to her room.’

As she wipes the foam from the corner of his mouth she realises that Harry thinks she is Fleur and he has no idea who this other woman is.

Harry sleeps downstairs, so that in an emergency he can be rushed to hospital and also to avoid the stairs. Up in her old bedroom, Fleur lies on the covers. Out to sea the pale haze has thickened, blurring the distinct line between the horizon and the water. She wants to ring Morné and tell him how she feels, but she knows she can’t. Down below a gong is sounding to indicate that lunch is ready. It’s from Burma, mounted on a teak stand, and belonged to Harry’s maternal grandfather. Eventually she goes down. Estelle is waiting anxiously.

‘No, I’m not having lunch, thank you. I’m going for a walk. I want the gate opened now. Immediately.’

She walks across the gravel crunching it noisily. She sets off for the port. The Villa Tubal is squeezing the life out of her. It has until now been a place where she felt free and happy. From the villa there is a narrow lane of high walls. A Russian billionaire has recently bought Villa Floriana next door. He paid an enormous amount of money for it. The locals are upset: they think that €150m. is an absurd amount of money and will destabilise the place. The sums of money washing around are toxic, but then there is money everywhere, despite the banking crisis. When she first joined the family she couldn’t comprehend the amounts they had. She saw an invoice one day from John Lobb for two pairs of handmade shoes: £8,000. For two pairs of Harry’s shoes! It was shocking. But you adjust: good shoes, after all, are an essential. For the locals the idea that people who are basically criminals should have so much money and use it to belittle them is offensive. The locals are minor, look-the-other-way rascals, not criminals.