She flinched and jumped back.

‘How dare you touch me,’ she said.

‘Oh, don’t be a bloody drama queen,’ he said. ‘You can’t say what you just did and expect that to be the end of it.’

‘I’ve answered your question. What more do you want?’

‘I want to talk about it because I think you’re lying.’

‘I don’t care what you think, Daniel. And even if it were true, I wouldn’t be obliged to tell you. We haven’t spoken for almost twenty years and in all that time not a day has passed when I haven’t thought what a lucky escape I had.’

‘I didn’t want us to break up, Annie, but I was given no choice. Everyone turned against me when they found out we were seeing each other and I never got a chance to explain myself.’

‘And what would you have told me? That I wasn’t the only girl you were shagging at the time, and that one of the others was even younger than me?’

His face contorted into a grimace, ugly and threatening, and it made Annie suddenly fear for her safety.

‘Just tell me the truth,’ he shouted at her. ‘Did you kill our child?’

Annie was determined not to let him see how shaken she was. With her breath thumping in her ears, she said, ‘I’ve got nothing more to say to you, Daniel. If you try to stop me walking away again I’ll call the police and have you arrested for assault.’

He began to speak, but by then she’d turned away and was striding across the cobbles, hoping he wouldn’t be reckless enough to come after her.

She carried on walking and did not look back until she reached the end of the street. To her relief Daniel was nowhere to be seen.

The encounter had shaken her, though, and her thoughts were now swimming in feverish circles. There was a tightness in her chest and her hands were trembling. But at least she had confronted the issue and hopefully that would be the end of it.

During the rest of the walk she had to force herself not to dwell on what had happened, but his face and his voice kept forcing themselves into her mind, causing an intense pressure to build behind her eyes.

When she got to the garage, the mechanic recognised her from when she’d dropped in with Bill to arrange for his car to be picked up. She was told it was still being fixed and wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow at the earliest.

James still hadn’t phoned or sent her a message, but it was only ten-thirty. She decided to drop the groceries off at home before making up her mind what to do next.

But on the way home she saw Daniel again. This time he was about fifty yards ahead of her in the middle of the village square. And he was engaged in what looked like a fierce argument with Giles Keegan.