‘It isn’t the first time. You know when Charlie was over in Morocco on business with Beezer? He left me there in charge of the big house. That was the first time.’

Jill remembered, all too well. They’d had a row about it. Jill was here on her own in the gatehouse, but Queen Nula up there in that fucking mansion needed Terry close up and personal to protect her.

Don’t I need protecting too? Jill had raged at him.

She knew she did. Why couldn’t Terry see that? Why had he never seen it, and left her exposed to danger?

Now, this. Didn’t that bitch up there have enough? She had the better house, she didn’t have this older place, nice as it was, with a fucking loft still full of bats. She had Charlie Stone, who said to Terry jump and Terry just asked how high. That irritated Jill to death.

‘And . . . what did she say? The first time?’ she asked, shocked.

‘She said we could sleep together that night, and it’d be never mentioned again. No strings, no nothing. Charlie would never know. You would never know. And this time? She was a bit more direct.’

Jill was stunned. Bloody Nula, making a move on her husband. The sheer fucking nerve of the woman. God curse those bloody Stones, they wanted it all.

‘It was nothing. I’m only telling you now because I didn’t want you hearing about it from anyone else. From Nula herself, maybe, claiming that something happened when it didn’t.’

Jill picked up her mug and drained it. She rose, walked over to the dishwasher, put the mug inside, then she stayed at the sink and stood there, leaning both hands on it.

‘And didn’t it?’ she said faintly. Once, Nula had been a plain, unattractive girl, but she’d had the work done to turn her into a good-looking woman. Jill knew that Nula had always hated her and Jill had always sensed the reason why. It was because of Terry. Jill had him; Nula didn’t. And now the bitch had come right out with it. She wanted Terry for herself.

Those fucking Stones.

‘What?’ Terry stood up, came over to the sink and wrapped his arms around his wife’s waist from behind, pressing the whole length of his body against the back of hers.

‘Did nothing happen, Terry? Really?’ said Jill in a choked voice. Knowing what she knew about the Stones and their sexual habits, she was ready to take a hammer blow when he told her the truth, confessed that he’d done it with that loose-living cow.