The three of us ordered coffees and found a table in a shady part of the village square. The only other customers were a couple of whiskery old men, sitting on a wooden bench with their walking sticks propped beside them. The French tricolour hung listlessly from the town hall next to the restaurant, no breeze at all to stir it in the early afternoon heat.

‘I have a confession to make,’ I said.

Rowan and Jennifer both looked up from their drinks.

‘That sounds a bit dramatic,’ Rowan said.

‘Is everything all right?’ Jennifer said.

I shook my head.

‘No, not really.’ I looked down. ‘It’s about as far from all right as it could possibly be.’

‘What’s up, honey?’ Jennifer said, her voice soft with concern. ‘What’s happened?’

I watched as an elderly lady in a stretched black dress emerged from the little church across the square, walking stick in her hand. Very slowly, she began to make her way towards the café.

‘It’s a confession with an apology thrown in.’

Quickly, without going into too much detail, I told them what had been happening over the last five days, my suspicions about Sean – suspicions that had hardened into the cold, hard knowledge that he was having an affair. How I had suspected first Rowan, then Jennifer, of being the other woman. And how confirmation had arrived yesterday that I had been wrong on both counts.

‘That ring,’ Rowan said. ‘I found it in the gym. I didn’t know it belonged to Sean – I thought it might have been a previous guest, so I just picked it up and put it in my drawer for safekeeping. Was going to ask everyone but it slipped my mind.’

‘I know,’ I said. ‘And apologies for thinking bad thoughts about you both. I’m really sorry. I just haven’t been able to see the wood for the trees. And the worst thing is, I bloody talked to Izzy about this earlier in the week and she assured me that Sean would never go behind my back. Which of course is exactly what you would say if you were the other woman. I was so stupid.’

They greeted my revelation with a moment of silence.

‘This is mad, I can’t believe it,’ Rowan said eventually, shaking her head. ‘I thought you’d been a bit weird these last few days. Couldn’t put my finger on what it was. You poor thing.’

‘Me too,’ Jennifer said. ‘I sensed something wasn’t right, was going to ask you. It must have been terrible for you, having to find out like that.’

Rowan stirred her coffee.

‘How certain are you? How sure?’

‘Pretty certain. He’s denied it point-blank but I know he’s hiding something. I just don’t know what to do next.’

‘Do you want us to talk to her?’ Jennifer said, pushing her sunglasses up into her hair. ‘The two of us?’