‘So when he came to me in Longannet in 2011 I eventually realised that it wasn’t just about rekindling our lost friendship. He wanted to marry me, and become stepdad to James.’

‘But the family wouldn’t accept it?’

‘Well, I wouldn’t accept it, for a start. That family is a snake pit. It was abundantly clear that his love for me was regarded by the family as simply an obstacle to be overcome, like a limp or a squinty eye. He was torn because he didn’t want to disappoint his mother, whom he adored, but he was afraid of his father who, since the stroke, felt his own time slipping away. Harry just wanted a quiet life, but he was already being groomed to be finance director by this time. He thought that if I agreed to bring up my child as a Hindu, that that might be enough. I wasn’t convinced.

‘Harry couldn’t speak to his father, who was implacable and obtuse, so he tried to work on his mother, to get her to drop her opposition to him marrying me. If they would welcome me, he thought he might be able to change my mind. And for a while it seemed like it might work. I was offered a job on the operations side at Slough, which Harry could not have pushed through without his mother’s acquiescence. Mrs Roy was very pragmatic, however, because she encouraged me in my work at Empire of Spice, even though she made it clear that her husband had vetoed any relationship I might want with their son.

‘During that time Harry dated a couple of Indian women that had been more informally introduced to him. They were both quite spiky, anglicised and liberated career women, which at least showed that his mother had taken on board who her son actually was. However after a few months in each case, he was dumped. I gather from Kiara, who was friends with one of them, that it was because they distrusted my friendship with Harry, and suspected me of carrying on with him.

‘Finally, in 2017, Dr Roy died. I did wonder whether that would change anything or everything, but as it later turned out the creation of the trust did a good job of letting him rule from beyond the grave. However, he died without ever seeing the birth of a male to carry forward Empire of Spice. It must’ve been a bitter disappointment to him.’

‘We’ve seen some video surveillance footage by private detectives of Harry’s house from last year,’ Gillard said. ‘Were you aware at the time that the Roy family was spying on you and Harry?’

Morag shook her head. ‘Not until later. You can see why I didn’t want to marry into this lot, can’t you? Yes, Prisha commissioned it I believe, but I became aware of it when Harry was told. The point was that Harry and I had been spending some time together, even though he told his mother that our relationship was over, and he was getting ready to marry this latest bride that Zayan had found for him in Mumbai.’