‘I’ll miss you though, Kate, you’ve kept me together body and soul since I lost Mandy. I’ve come to rely on you very much. I’d even go so far as to say I’m falling in love. But what you said has a ring of truth. All I can say in my defence is that I have nothing now in my life that I would need to hide from you.’

‘What about the future?’

He smiled. ‘Who knows what the future has in store for us?

Kate looked away from him and concentrated on the ormolu clock on the mantelpiece, its ticking the only other sound in the room. She bit her lip. So much had happened in the last few months. Her life would never be the same again. Her relationship with Lizzy was over. It would be different now between them. Lizzy would need a firm hand after this. All the trust was gone. The one person whom Kate had always seen as constant and good had been shown up in a dark light. It scared her. How could you not know that about your child? On the other hand, the man she had been wary of seeing, who had a bad reputation, who in her right mind she should never have got involved with, had turned out to be a good man underneath. A good and kind man, whose reputation was only believed by the people who didn’t really know him.

‘I don’t want to finish with you, Kate.’

His voice was soft and low.

‘I don’t want to stop seeing you either, Pat.’

She wasn’t sure she could stop now, even if she wanted to.

‘When is she home?’

‘Tomorrow, I could have taken her tonight, you know, being a DI. But I didn’t trust myself, Pat, I thought I might harm her if she was with me while I felt like this.’

‘Why did you come to me?’ It was a low whisper.

‘Because I trust you, I suppose.’

He smiled and pulled her to her feet. ‘Come on.’

‘Where are we going?’

‘I’m going to run you a nice bath, Katie, and I’m going to soap your body personally, every nook and cranny. Then I am going to lay you on my bed and stroke every care and worry from your mind. Then when madam gets home tomorrow, you’ll be in a fit frame of mind to see her and get this sorted out once and for all.’

He pulled Kate to the bottom of the staircase and she dragged her hand from his.

‘Oh, Pat, what am I going to do? What with the case and everything, and now all this with Lizzy . . .’ Her voice trailed off and Patrick took her hand once more.