Meanwhile, up at Charlie’s it was party central, and the parties were every bit as wild as Jill and Terry suspected they would be. Keys in the dish? It was such a laugh. And spin the bottle. Charlie told Terry that they had two-way mirrored walls in several of the rooms, so people could stand behind it and watch the gymnastics going on. It was fun. You never knew who you were going to wind up with, but it was agreed between Charlie and his wife that condoms would always be used at these events.

‘I don’t want some cheap tart showing up at the door claiming to be carrying your kid,’ said Nula.

‘And I don’t want you up the duff to another man,’ said Charlie.

‘You’d think Terry and Jill would enjoy this,’ said Nula, feeling an edge of irritation at what he’d said. Christ, this had all been Charlie’s idea anyway. She only took part because he wanted her to.

‘What, the parties?’

‘Yeah. It might spice things up a bit for them. Put some sparkle back in the bedroom.’ Despite all her best intentions, Nula was picturing herself having sex with Terry. She felt herself grow damp at the thought of it.

‘Nah,’ said Charlie. ‘Terry’s not the type for it. And neither’s Jill. She’s a lady, that one.’

Nula felt a deeper stab of annoyance at that. So Jill was a lady, was she? And what did that make her?

Not that it mattered. She calmed herself, looked around at all that she had, with Jill down at the bottom of the drive playing poor relation. It wasn’t perfect, but it was good enough. Nula was content.

Money wasn’t a problem for Charlie, so now they had this party-central house, swish motors in the four-car garage, a brand-new set of double-D tits that she showed off in plunging empire-line gowns whenever they had a party – oh, and they had lots of those – and now she’d been to the doc and he’d confirmed that she was pregnant. When she broke the news to Charlie, he was so pleased he nearly cried.

‘You little beauty!’ he burst out, picking her up and twirling her round.

Nula had to laugh. His child-like enthusiasm was infectious.

‘We’ll need to get the nursery done up ready,’ she told him as he set her back down on her feet.

‘No problem, baby doll. You hum it, I’ll play it. Get the designers in. Whatever you want, no expense spared.’