Even with the time difference that was still a bit of a push. It would have been a very early night for me and I didn’t feel all that comfortable that Dolly had felt obliged to lie.

‘Did he believe you?’ I swallowed.

‘Of course he believed me,’ she tutted, taking away my knife. ‘You’ll be through to the other side in a minute. I told him you had a headache and we carried on talking until he had to go. He sounded very excited about the apartment. He even mentioned a spare room if I ever fancied visiting.’

I felt my shoulders drop and my stomach unclench. It seemed we’d got away with it. Or Dolly had.

‘OK,’ I nodded, letting out the breath I didn’t realise I’d been hanging on to. ‘Excellent. That’s great.’

‘Oh yes,’ said Dolly. ‘It’s brilliant, isn’t it?’

She didn’t sound anywhere near as pleased or relieved as I was.

‘What?’

‘Well,’ she said, ‘like you just said, everything is obviously great. I mean, that startled fawn look you’ve just demonstrated is the ultimate indicator of a happy relationship. And of course, it’s perfectly natural that I should think to lie to your husband-to-be rather than tell him the truth.’

‘Why did you lie?’

‘Let’s just say my gut feeling was that you hadn’t mentioned Beamish so I thought it would come as quite a surprise to Jonathan if I said you were down the pub with him.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, abandoning my toast and dumping myself down in Dolly’s chair. ‘And your gut was right. I haven’t mentioned Beamish.’

She didn’t give me the chance to explain that I knew I was in the wrong.

‘But why ever not? If everything is as good as you say it is with Jonathan now, then what possible reason can you have?’

‘Everything is good between us,’ I insisted. ‘It’s not Jonathan, it’s me. I am going to tell him; I’ve just been working out how.’

Dolly didn’t look convinced.

‘Beamish is a good-looking guy,’ I rushed on, ‘and I suppose I’ve been worried that it might complicate things if I mentioned him.’

Dolly shook her head. Apparently, I was completely incapable of finding the right words to justify my silence about my new friend.

‘I’m certain you could have talked about him without bringing up his rugged good looks and Chris Evans dimensions,’ she tutted.

‘Oh Dolly.’

‘Look,’ she went on, ‘Jonathan went to great lengths to make amends for what he did and you’ve never mentioned him showing his temper since.’

‘He hasn’t shown it,’ I insisted.

Getting annoyed about me wanting to contact Mum and Dad didn’t count in this situation. To be honest, his reaction had been more than justified.