‘Of course not. I meant did she help you sort documents – as she said in the letter? Did she … I don’t know … Were you friendly with her? Did you offer her wine?’

He threw his arms into the air. ‘I offer lots of people wine, but I haven’t attacked a single one of them. I told you, I don’t know who this person is,’ he almost shouted, thrusting his head towards her, dark eyes blazing.

‘OK, OK. Calm down. I’m just trying to get a picture of the girl, trying to work out why she would accuse you like this.’

‘This is insane,’ he muttered, throwing himself into his chair again and covering his face with his hands. ‘And really upsetting.’

There was a long silence.

‘You could ask James?’ Romy suggested. ‘Or Wendy? She’s bound to remember. Nothing goes on in the place that gets past Wendy.’ Romy paused. ‘And she said she borrowed a cardigan from –’

Before she could go on, her husband’s head flew up. ‘Seriously? You want me to bring this ludicrous accusation up with my colleagues? How do you think that will play?’ His look was scornful, but he also seemed hurt by her reaction.

Romy waited for him to say more, but he remained stubbornly silent. ‘So what are you going to do, Michael?’

Her husband shrugged. ‘What do you expect me to do?’

‘I don’t know … but don’t you want to find out who she is?’

‘Nope,’ he snapped.

‘Well, I’d like to, even if you don’t,’ Romy said. ‘We should work out who she is and why she’s written a letter out of the blue like this. Even though she says she’s not going public, we don’t know she’ll stick to that, now she’s made the first move. Shouldn’t we at least be prepared?’

Michael frowned. ‘So you want me to find her? Confront her? That’s probably exactly what she’s after.’ He shook his head. ‘I feel sorry for her. She’s obviously got issues.’

Romy wondered if Michael could be right. That the girl – woman – was some sort of attention-seeker, perhaps, and had fixated on him because he’d meant something to her when she was young?

‘I’m amazed you feel sorry for her, Michael, making false accusations like that. She could cause you a lot of trouble.’

‘Which is my point, exactly. It’s not a can of worms worth opening.’ His voice was calm now, almost matter-of-fact, and Romy, not a little puzzled by his reaction, sat without speaking. She didn’t know what he should do, either. But he didn’t seem angry with the anonymous girl, didn’t seem to find her significant at all.

‘Are you just going to leave it, then?’

‘Well, what else do you suggest?’

‘I don’t know …’