Victoria was in disgrace, after getting coked off her head at Adele’s party and getting off with one of the hostess’s son’s friends – which Adele regarded not only as a faux pas but also an insult to her as a mother. The boy left Victoria’s flat the next morning with a smirk on his face, and Victoria watched him as he walked down the street, already texting. She refused to be ashamed of what she’d done, in public at least; if Adele couldn’t handle it, that was her problem. Perhaps it made her feel old. Well, she was old – while Victoria was still young and beautiful enough to attract a young man at his sexual peak. Admittedly that peak was not particularly high, although that may have been due to the drugs. It was certainly not worth falling out with Adele over – but Adele would have to be the one to apologise. Victoria had done nothing to apologise for. Who, after all, was Adele to be telling anyone not to have sex when they felt like it?

It did, however, leave Victoria at a loose end on Christmas Day. Normally, she would go to Adele’s, enjoy a good dinner, give and receive a few small but expensive gifts, drink too much, stroll home and straight to bed . . . But not this year. This year, she told anyone who asked, she was going to enjoy a day of rest – she’d been running around so much that Christmas Day was actually the only time she’d get to put her feet up, pamper herself, catch up on sleep and reading and relax . . .

Christine was contemplating an empty nest on Christmas Day. Isabelle was not coming home; that much had been established beyond all reasonable doubt during another heated discussion about money/drugs/sex, which ended with slamming doors and little prospect of reconciliation. Ben, meanwhile, announced in a typically oblique way that he was ‘working’ over Christmas, and would be staying with mates, that he’d be back‘some time’ over the festive period and they’d ‘play it by ear’. Christine had no idea what this ‘work’ was – DJing, perhaps, or gigging (she had yet to be invited) – but for all she knew he could be a drug-dealing male prostitute, he gave so little away. He didn’t look the type, but then neither do half the defendants in the criminal courts.