Bella threw him a brave smile. ‘Yes, I’m sure I’ll be fine.’

Jo took a couple of deep breaths, trying to dampen down the irritation that was still quivering through her chest. She wondered why she was the only one who could see that Bella’s behaviour was simply attention-seeking, rather than due to any kind of genuine discomfort.

‘What time is Emma getting here?’ Ben addressed the question to Peter.

Peter looked at his watch. ‘Any time now, I should imagine. I told her she should have hitched a lift with you two. Seems a bit crazy to bring two cars to do the same journey, especially as the roads are so icy.’

A look passed between Bella and Ben and Jo knew, without them saying so, that Emma would not have been offered a lift. She thought back to last Christmas, which suddenly seemed like a lifetime ago, and how much things had changed since then.

Emma and Ben had always been so close. Even when Ben was with Charlotte, his relationship with his older sister had remained strong. But since meeting Bella, there seemed to be a distance between them. Emma was as perplexed as Jo and the two of them had spent many hours discussing whether she might have done something to upset him.

Jo had never voiced it, but she knew instinctively that it was Bella who had a problem with Emma and that Ben was just going along with it for an easy life. She looked at Bella now, so beautiful and so charming when she chose to be. So cold and brittle when she didn’t. She wished she could shake off the heavy feeling of anxiety that had dogged her ever since they announced that she was pregnant and they were getting married.

Looking back, it was then that Ben had started to change towards them. Well, that wasn’t quite right. He had started to change towards Jo and Emma. He had become more distant and a little more formal. He seemed fine with Peter, which was ironic, considering it was Peter who had voiced his reservations about Bella and the speed of their relationship in the first place. But he had also changed in himself. He was becoming quieter and less confident, as if he was slowly but surely having the stuffing pulled out of him.

As if she sensed her watching, Bella suddenly turned her gaze towards Jo. Jo quickly rearranged her features into a smile but Bella’s large brown eyes narrowed and there was a glint of something that Jo couldn’t read, except that she knew it wasn’t pleasant.

She sighed and stood up, fed up with being excluded from the conversation.

No one seemed to notice as she left the room. Walking back into the kitchen, she caught sight of the pan of mulled wine gently bubbling on the Aga. Feeling a sudden spike of annoyance, she picked it up and tipped it down the sink. She watched the dark red, gloopy liquid congeal around the plughole, with its crimson tendrils clinging to the stark white walls of the sink like blood. She turned on the tap and swished water over the incriminating evidence until it was all gone.