‘Well, don’t hurry in the morning. Potter down to the kitchen whenever you feel like breakfast – in your dressing gown if you like. I’ll be around,’ and Elspeth kissed her visitor goodnight and went down to let the dogs out.

With no Christopher to occupy her in other ways, Marnie intended to start reading his book that night. She was still glued to it at two o’clock in the morning.

‘Well, darling,’ Elspeth said to her husband after they’d got to bed. ‘What do you think of the new girlfriend?’

‘Big improvement on Nicola anyway,’ said Godfrey. ‘Much more interesting. I should think there might be fireworks, though. I think she’s got her head in the clouds, a mind of her own and a lot of hang-ups – a difficult mix. And we know how hot-headed Christopher can be. Still, sparks are better than a dead fire.’

She said: ‘What an old fraud you are, darling! You pretend you’re not the least bit interested in people and then after one evening you can sum someone up better than I can.’

‘Oh, surely not,’ he teased, taking her hand as he always did before they fell asleep. ‘Anyway, let’s hope it lasts long enough for him to have a bit of fun and recover his self-respect.’

‘I hope so. Oh, I do hope so.’

‘Well, if anyone ever makes Christopher half as happy as you’ve always made me, he’ll be a very lucky man,’ said Godfrey.

‘Or drives him half as mad?’ she asked.

‘That too,’ he said. ‘Goodnight, my love.’

Chapter Thirty

Christopher and Marnie stayed at Nether Pacey for a week. Resolutions about corridor creeping did not last.

To his relief, Christopher had little trouble in getting permission from his probation officer to go to London and made a date to have lunch with Barry Forster, who was extremely encouraging on the telephone about Inside Knowledge. He said he had already sent it to commissioning editors at two publishing firms, one of which was Jonathan Mercer’s publisher. Now that she had read it, Marnie was even more enthusiastic about Christopher’s writing and had been able to tell him truthfully that she could hardly put the book down.

She made a couple of critical suggestions about the plot, which impressed Christopher with their pertinence, and though his initial reaction had been to disagree he eventually conceded that she had a point and made some minor alterations. She was fascinated to know which of the characters were based directly on his prison experiences.