But Ted couldn’t stop. The tears were rolling down his cheeks as he tried to compose himself, but it was useless. He held his arm up in front of his face, as Isobel threw her handbag at him. ‘You’re a pig, a mean, rude, thoughtless pig!’

‘Pot, kettle, black,’ he said unsteadily.

She marched back to the taxi and opened the door of the taxi. ‘I want to go back to the B&B.’

Ted nodded. ‘I think that’s a good idea. You’re obviously still tired …’

She spun round, her eyes spitting fire. ‘Don’t you dare patronise me, Edward Hewitt.’

He held his hands up in a placating manner. ‘I didn’t mean to. Let me take you to the bed and breakfast …’

She cut him off without apology. ‘I’m not going anywhere with you. You can sod off and go to hell as far as I’m concerned,’ she looked around her with a disapproving eye, ‘although I rather feel you’re already there …’

Ted ran his tongue around the inside of his cheek. For two pins he would have agreed that being in Isobel’s company was probably very like being in hell, but he had no wish to throw fuel on to an already burning fire. ‘As you wish. I shall call round in the morning.’

She shot him a withering look before getting into the car and rolling the window down. ‘Don’t bother.’

Ted shook his head. ‘Don’t be silly, Issy …’ but Isobel had already ordered the taxi to leave, so Ted found himself addressing thin air.

Seeing the taxi disappear into the distance, he made his way to the nearest tram stop. He knew now that Isobel had only agreed to marry him because she thought he would become a partner in the business. Whistling softly, he turned his thoughts to Toff, and how she had accepted him despite the fact that he was so much poorer than she was. It was that rotten father of hers that had been the problem. William Campbell was just like Isobel, despising anyone that wasn’t just like him. Ted tried to envisage how his life would have turned out had he and Toff still been together. He heaved a heartfelt sigh. There was no point in dwelling on the past.

He held up a hand and jumped on to the back of a tram as it slowed. He would speak to Isobel in the morning and see if they couldn’t come to some kind of agreement.

The next morning Ted was up betimes. The previous evening had not been a pleasant one for him, with a whole host of questions being fired at him as to why he wasn’t staying with his wife. Rather than explain that he was married to a sourpuss, he had said that there had been a mistake with the booking and she was in a single bed.