It was a soft voice, unlike her usual tones, and Harry looked into his wife’s face and nodded.

‘I’m terrified. If any of this came out, any of it, I’d be finished. The land scandal alone would be enough to do it, without the rest.’

Bunty, bent on self-preservation, went to her husband and kissed him gently on the lips.

Looking into her hard face, Harry saw briefly the girl he had met all those years ago, with her phony accent that had taken him in, and her rogue of a father who had not.

He had lifted himself from a council house, had worked to achieve a good life, a decent standard of living. And he had never done any of it legitimately, always sailing too close to the wind. For a few seconds he wondered why he’d bothered. They didn’t even have a child to leave it all to.

Then Bunty smiled, and he knew why.

Because this thin, vicious bitch of a woman had got under his skin when she was seventeen, and had been there ever since.

Lewis admired Benjamin’s cell, and nodded with approval.

‘What you need now are some curtains. A nice biscuit colour would look good.’

Donald Lewis was in his element; he was the acknowledged master of the colour scheme, followed a close second by Sadie. No one asked Eric, who though classed as artistic was considered a bit too macho for that kind of thing.

Benjamin said sagely: ‘I’m going to sort something out, Mr Lewis. I want a nice rug now for the floor.’

Georgio listened to the discussion with a growing sense of unreality. Pushing himself away from the wall, he walked down to the kitchen and watched Sadie preparing goulash.

‘How’s it going, Sade?’

Face pale and devoid of the usual make-up, she shrugged. ‘How do you think? Would you like Donald Lewis stuck up your arse?’

Georgio closed his eyes in disgust. ‘What are you going to do?’

Sadie shrugged again, and the sad inevitability of this young man’s fate angered Georgio.

‘What can I do? It’s Timmy I feel sorry for. He’s like a little lost kid. I know people took the piss out of us, but I care about Timmy. In my world, people like him are few and far between. He would listen to my dreams and my wants. Oh! I know he’s a big fat ignorant git, but he cared for me, Georgio, and to someone like me, that means a hell of a lot. He made me think that I could do the things I want to do. He was genuinely interested in me, Albert, known as Sadie. The man who ain’t a woman. The person underneath all that.’

Georgio nodded.

They were silent for a few seconds, while Sadie chopped onions and crushed garlic.