‘Yes, the lot. They’ve saved our business, if we’re honest. We just get priced out of the market by the big supermarkets. We can’t survive on the kind of money they’re prepared to give us and I hate to feel like we’re being bullied by the big boys.’

‘I had heard it’s quite cut-throat,’ said Steph. Her estimation of the family notched up a little. ‘Fair play to the Sinclairs.’

‘They’ve been good to us as well,’ said a man sitting on the other side of Tina and George. ‘We’re an independent brewery. We make craft beers and the Sinclairs always order in bulk from us to stock their bar.’

‘That’s fantastic,’ said Steph. She looked at the local entrepreneurs. ‘Is it kind of quid pro quo?’ She kept her tone casual, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to ask.

The guy from the brewery looked a little uncomfortable at the question, as did George, but Tina was less perturbed.

‘Well, although there isn’t any formal agreement, as such,’ she began, ‘I think I speak for most of the local businesses who work with the Sinclair family that the loyalty they offer us is the same sort of loyalty they expect back.’

Steph pondered the answer. She wanted something more specific. ‘How do you mean exactly?’

‘I suppose we are supportive of their business as much as they are supportive of ours. They wouldn’t do anything to jeopardise what we might want to do, and equally we wouldn’t stand in their way.’

‘So, hypothetically speaking, if you wanted to extend your greenhouses, they wouldn’t object and, still hypothetically speaking, you wouldn’t object to any planning applications to expand Conmere?’ suggested Steph.

‘Hypothetically speaking, yes,’ interjected George. ‘Anyway, what about you? Are you a reporter?’

‘I work for a digital-first holiday company, Vacation Staycation. I’m a feature writer and deal with PR for the agency,’ replied Steph and went on to explain a bit more about the business to George. She probably wasn’t going to get much more out of Tina right now, but give it a couple of hours and a few glasses of wine and then she was sure Tina would give her some more gossip about the Sinclair family. A local who was willing to divulge information was the ideal person to chat to, and Tina was bound to know something about Elizabeth Sinclair.

Her hunch was proved right, and by the time the main course had been cleared away Tina was really quite drunk. Steph had surreptitiously topped up Tina’s glass regularly and had kept the conversation light so as not to draw any suspicion from George. He was more relaxed himself now and talking earnestly to the beer-brewing guy again. Steph decided this was her best chance to engage Tina in conversation about Elizabeth.