Donna flapped a hand at the older woman. ‘No, don’t bother getting up. I’m going out now and I don’t know when I’ll be back.’ She smiled maddeningly as she added, ‘So don’t wait up, will you?’

Picking up her car keys she marched out of the house, leaving Dolly stunned at her words.

Two hours later, Donna was sitting in Amigo’s, nursing a white wine and soda and listening to Alan Cox as he explained why he thought someone else should be the go-between.

Alan’s eyes were all over the restaurant as he spoke to her. Even deep in conversation he kept his eye on his staff and his customers.

‘The thing is, love, I don’t think you’re cut out for this kind of thing. That’s no offence or anything, in a way it’s a compliment. But this could get a little bit scary, you know? There’s people I need to involve who’d scare Old Nick himself, do you get my drift?’

Donna watched him without saying one word.

His eyes stopped their wandering to look at her properly. ‘Are you listening to me?’ His voice had risen two octaves and he looked cross. Donna guessed most women hung on to his every word, and he wasn’t used to the reaction he was getting from her. Boredom.

‘I don’t have much choice, do I? You talk enough for a battalion. You’re like Georgio in a lot of ways. You expect people to listen, especially people like me: women, menials. Well, Mr Alan Smart Arse Cox, I’ve been listening to you for ages. If you bothered to make eye-contact now and again instead of looking at every other person in the place, you’d have noticed that much yourself.’

Alan frowned, taken aback at her words. ‘Aren’t you feeling all the ticket, love?’

Donna shook her head slowly in consternation. ‘You make me laugh, do you know that? You sit there with your handmade suit and your expensive cigar as if they’re props that will make you someone, a somebody. You talk at me, not to me, and calmly expect me to jump immediately to your way of thinking. Well, Mr Cox, I won’t. In fact, I am just about getting sick and tired of being told what I should think, what I should do, and how I should ruddy well do it.