‘That’s your problem,’ said Hannah, with a rare flash of sudden intuition. ‘Not hers. You can choose how you respond.’ The rest of them might have found Fliss a little irritating on occasion but they’d all managed to keep it to themselves. They’d certainly not talked derisively about her in the way that Jason had intimated. Now Hannah felt desperately sorry for the other girl. God, it was almost like being back at school and being the only one not invited to join the new WhatsApp group.

‘I choose to call her out,’ he said, with a stubborn narrowing of his eyes.

‘And you think the way you did it was helpful?’ said Izzy.

He shrugged his shoulders and let out an aggrieved sigh. ‘God, women. It’s worse than being at home.’

‘Jason,’ Adrienne’s cool voice interrupted; she’d been watching and listening to the exchange from the front of the class. ‘I think you owe the pot three euros.’

He shot her a dark look but dug into his pocket and stomped towards the jar she held in her hand.

‘I think one of us ought to go and find Fliss, make sure she’s all right,’ said Meredith, looking at Hannah.

‘Me?’ She looked at Izzy, who grinned.

‘I think Meredith’s right. It’s a job for a lawyer. Someone who’s balanced and can see both sides of the argument.’ She pursed her mouth in an annoying prim line, belying her smug amusement.

Hannah did feel sorry for poor Fliss. Although she was quite prickly and very sharp-tongued on occasion, there was something underneath all that arrogant bravado.

With a resigned, ‘OK, then,’ she walked out into the lobby. There was a small cloakroom there which was typically Adrienne-style with soft blue towels, fresh flowers, and gorgeous-smelling soap as well as a pretty blue chaise longue. As soon as she pushed open the door she heard the sound of quiet sobs and there was Fliss, her head buried in her lap, her blonde hair spilling over her face.

She looked up as the door clicked behind Hannah.

‘What do you want? Come to gloat?’ Her woebegone, crumpled face made Hannah’s heart ache; Fliss looked all of her nineteen years old. The usual sophisticated sheen had been wiped away and she looked lost and defeated.

Hannah sat down next to her. ‘No one’s gloating. Jason was out of order.’

‘No, he wasn’t. He was right. I am an insufferable cow. I can’t help it. I try to get in before anyone else does, so they don’t put me down.’

‘Why would we put you down? You’re one of the best cooks here. Look at me, dunce of the class – I’m not going to put you down.’

Fliss closed her eyes and her mouth crumpled. ‘They do at home. All the time. Cooking’s the only thing I’m any good at.’