‘We could have gone down. The whole fucking lot of us, did you think of that?’ Terry burst out. ‘If they’d traced it back to us, the shit would have hit the fan big time. What the hell’s been coming over you?’

Jill looked at her half-eaten meal and abruptly stood up. ‘Look, keep your voice down. Belle will hear.’

Belle was up in her room, doing homework. It was the unwritten rule between them; Belle must never know the true nature of the trade they were all wrapped up in. She was an innocent child, and – like Milly up at the big house – she would stay that way. None of Charlie Stone’s dirt would ever be allowed to touch the girls. They’d all agreed on that, long ago.

‘I’m not talking about this any more,’ said Jill, and left the room.

Him and his fucking mate Charlie. It hurt her, how strong the bond was between the two men. She knew that, for both of them, friends came first; wives, second. It devastated her, every day, that Terry was so up Charlie’s arse, but she had no choice but to soak it up – when Charlie had done such a dreadful thing to her, right here in Terry’s home.

Later, in bed, Terry held her. In the darkness he squeezed her tight and whispered: ‘Why’d you do it?’

‘I told you,’ she murmured.

‘There’s nothing else?’ he asked.

‘Like what?’

‘It wasn’t because of what I told you about that daft cow Nula? Not to spite her, to spite both of them?’

‘No. It wasn’t that.’

‘There was nothing in it. Truly.’

‘I know that,’ said Jill, and for a moment she was on the point of saying it, out loud: Charlie Stone raped me. So what the hell else does that rotten bastard deserve but treachery? Why do I have to spend every day here, seeing him, living in fear, wondering if he’ll do it again when he sends you away on ‘business’ to Christ knows where?

She couldn’t say it. Terry’s whole world would collapse if she did.

‘There’s nothing else,’ she whispered, and kissed his cheek.

‘You’ll never do it again?’ he asked. ‘Swear to me.’

‘Never,’ said Jill.

She wouldn’t. Minutes after making the calls, she’d been shaking with fear. She knew Terry was right. It could be the end of everything, what she’d done. Years in jail for Charlie and Nula, Terry and her. Belle and Milly and Harlan left, taken into care, their lives ruined.

‘I swear on Belle’s life,’ said Jill. ‘I will never do it again.’

‘Good,’ said Terry, and finally he turned away from her and slept.

57

Charlie got a call from Candice, one of the working girls on his manor, when he was at one of his London houses.

‘Your wife phoned me,’ she said.

‘What?’