Olivia placed a restraining hand on Ted’s arm. ‘Don’t bother, Ted, he’s not worth it.’

Maude jerked her head back towards the billet. ‘I told Beth to stay in there until I’d told Ralph exactly what I thought of him in front of our flight officer.’ She smiled. ‘Giving him a slap across the chops was far more satisfying.’

‘You’ve got gumption,’ said Ted, ‘I’ll give you that.’

Olivia was looking less celebratory. ‘I think I’d better go and see Beth. I’ve got some apologising to do.’

‘I can’t believe we fell for his lies,’ Maude said ruefully. ‘I feel such an idiot.’

‘What I don’t understand is why Beth never told us,’ Olivia said.

‘I do,’ Maude said. ‘Let’s face it, Liv, whether we admit it or not, we all thought badly of Beth from the word go, and even when we thought we were wrong, there’s always a tiny part of you that remains suspicious. Beth must have realised that out of the two of them we’d believe Mr Holier Than Thou over her. If she’d told us the truth, she’d have been hanging herself – we’d have thought she was trying to blacken his name before he had a chance to speak.’

Olivia set off for the billet. ‘Come on, Ted, you can’t come in but I can bring Beth out.’

Beth, however, had already appeared in the doorway to the billet and was looking cautiously around her. She looked at Olivia, then Maude, who nodded encouragingly.

‘Has anyone seen Ralph?’ Beth asked.

‘Seen him, slapped him,’ said Maude, and nodded at Ted, ‘punched him in the face and sent him packing.’

Beth’s hand flew to her mouth. ‘You don’t know what he’s like! He’ll go straight to the top and spin a yarn of lies, he’ll have you court-martialled, he’ll …’

Olivia placed her arm around Beth’s shoulders. ‘He won’t be doing any of that, because he got caught out good and proper. He might be able to bully one person into keeping quiet when it’s his word against theirs, but there were too many witnesses, all of whom will shoot his reputation down in flames should he be stupid enough to say anything.’ She noticed Beth massaging her wrist. ‘What have you done to your arm?’ She pulled Beth’s hand up to have a closer examination. ‘Did he do this to you?’

Beth nodded. ‘He’s worse than I thought, Liv. He was mad as fire when I told him I was going to tell you everything. He tried to frighten me into holding my tongue, but I got free and legged it into the ablutions.’ She smiled at Maude. ‘I ran into the first cubicle and locked the door in case he was desperate enough to come in.’