‘I caused him to die, you see,’ she says, just in case Fliss hasn’t understood. ‘He died and I abandoned him. I couldn’t stop thinking about his parents.’

‘But it wasn’t your fault,’ says Fliss. ‘He should never have invited you out. He misled you. You were right to leave. But, Cara, what happened was an appalling accident and it wasn’t your fault.’

There is a short silence.

‘And when did Philip come back to see you?’ asks Hal.

‘Philip came home a few days later, as he’d promised. He was in the Chancery section of the Foreign Office but he had contacts who were able to find out what had happened after I ran away. Apparently Joe often took women to the flat. It was thought that there might have been a lovers’ quarrel but nothing was found or proved. Nobody had seen me, and certainly no one suspected a foreign national. Joe’s family didn’t want a scandal. Nobody thought that he’d been murdered, and since the banister was rotten with woodworm it was assumed to be an accident. It was all kept quiet, hushed up. Philip told me that nobody need ever know, but I told him that I would know and that I would never be able to forgive myself.’

She falls silent, wondering how to go on. This is always the problem with baring the soul: it’s difficult for everyone to move on from it. It’s Sam who breaks the silence.

‘So when did you and Philip get married?’ he asks, as if he is trying to carry her forward to a happier time.

She knows that only the truth will do and she braces herself to continue.

‘A few weeks later I realized that I was pregnant,’ she says. ‘I was devastated but I couldn’t lose the baby, I couldn’t give it up. You see, it seemed like an atonement: it was Joe’s, a part of his life. I phoned Philip and he came home on compassionate leave. He understood. He knew what keeping the child meant to me.’ She pauses a moment before continuing. ‘So he suggested that we should get married, that as far as everyone was concerned the child would be his.’

Fliss is still holding her hands.

‘What was your reaction?’ she asks gently.

‘I’d known Philip since I was a little girl,’ answers Cara. ‘He was Max’s best friend and I loved him, so it wasn’t as bizarre as it sounds. And at that moment I needed him so much.’ She pauses again. ‘But then he said that if I would agree to marry him, he would not lie to me. So I knew his secrets just as he knew mine, and I kept them just as he kept mine.’