Ben scowled irritably. ‘What? I need to go with them in case Dad and I have to pull the car out of a ditch or something.’

His insolent tone made me fizz with instant rage. ‘You can’t leave me here on my own!’ I hissed through gritted teeth, hoping he would get the message and come back in.

‘Come, don’t come,’ Jo snapped at Ben. ‘But make your bloody mind up because we need to get to Emma.’

Ben hesitated and I glared at him murderously. He didn’t need to go. He was just trying to play the hero in front of his mum and dad. I didn’t want to be left in the house on my own when I wasn’t feeling well. The fact that I felt fine was irrelevant – he thought I was unwell which was the main thing.

To my horror, he gave me an apologetic smile. ‘Sorry, darling, I’ll only be a few minutes. You’ll be fine.’

With that, the three of them raced out of the door, leaving me sitting by myself in a fog of such violent outrage that it brought genuine tears to my eyes.

I couldn’t believe that Ben would deliberately disobey me like that, trying to humiliate me and make a fool of me in front of his mum and, particularly, his dad. ‘You bastard!’ I screamed into the empty room.

It was almost half an hour before they came back. By that time, the upset I felt had solidified into cold, hard rage. I watched resentfully through the window as Peter and Jo tenderly helped Emma out of the back of the Range Rover. She seemed absolutely fine. Well, apart from the bump on her forehead, which probably looked a lot worse than it was. They each took an arm and steered her towards the house, as if she was about to collapse at any minute. Emma was milking it for all she was worth, shuffling along like a 90-year-old. As they reached the front door, her small green Fiat pulled onto the gravel driveway, driven by Ben. Admittedly, it was pretty badly bashed up but it was clearly drivable. Emma hadn’t needed everyone to go running to her rescue – she could just as easily have driven it home herself. Bloody drama-queen that she was, she probably just wanted everyone to make a fuss of her, instead of me.

As Peter, Jo and Emma all made their way to the kitchen, Ben came into the sitting room. I fixed him with a cold stare as he stood nervously in front of me, like a schoolboy summoned to see the headmistress. ‘Poor Emma – that was a pretty nasty prang she had there,’ he began.

I pulled my coat around myself defensively and looked away without replying.

Ben ran a hand through his hair. ‘Did you see the car? It’s a right mess.’

I shrugged huffily. ‘It doesn’t look that bad to me. And Emma seemed fine.’

Ben frowned. ‘She’s actually very shaken up, Bella! And she’s got a hell of a bump on her head.’ He hesitated. ‘Why are you being like this? You’ve been really off since we arrived.’