‘And that’s where he met Hugh?’

‘Yes. Hugh was a don, yet not much older than his students. Fearfully bright chap.’ Emily shook her head. ‘Such a waste. He could have gone so far if he hadn’t met my son.’

‘They had a . . . liaison?’

‘No need to be coy. I’m sure you know that already, Inspector Hunter,’ Emily clucked. ‘And when the powers that be at Oxford discovered it, Hugh was dismissed on the spot. My son was sent down not long after for all sorts of heinous crimes, including not appearing at lectures for an entire term.’

‘Did Corin love Hugh, do you think?’

Emily paused in thought. Finally she said, ‘In Corin’s way, perhaps he did. When he was sent down, he came to live here on the estate. In a wink of an eye, Hugh was here in Norfolk, too, working as a teacher at St Stephen’s. Hugh hung around Corin all the time. I rarely remember visiting Corin at his cottage when Hugh wasn’t there. But if you’re asking me whether it was an equal feeling between them, I would say without question, no.’ She answered definitely. ‘You see, Corin was not . . . how shall I put it . . . a full-time homosexual, and even if he had been, I doubt he could have been faithful to Hugh. No, he liked women as well. Which was what finally caused a problem between them.’

Jazz was surprised. ‘Really? Corin fell in love with a woman?’

‘No, my dear,’ Emily chuckled. ‘As I’ve just said, Corin was far too selfish to fall in love properly with anyone. But that did not mean to say he was averse to filling his baser needs. Anyway, Hugh came up to Corin’s cottage one day and found him in bed. With a woman.’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘I mean, my dear, how could he hope to compete? Hugh arrived here at the house, and sought me out. He was devastated. I can tell you, it was a fairly strange task to comfort a young man in love with my son, who’d been usurped by a woman. But poor Hugh had no one else to turn to.’

‘Did it destroy their relationship?’ asked Jazz.

‘Yes, at least for a while. Hugh stopped visiting, but Corin started to deteriorate and was drunk, or on drugs most of the time. He rang Hugh in his hour of need, and Hugh came scampering back to help him. Corin died soon after, of a heroin overdose. Hugh was the one who found him.’

‘What a sad story,’ Jazz mused. ‘Corin was so young.’

‘Yes. And to be honest with you, my dear, I don’t think I ever got over losing Corin. First-born son and all that. There’s an undeniable bond.’ Emily shook her head. ‘Interesting, isn’t it? Most people spend their lives wanting to fall in love, and yet sometimes love can be so terribly destructive. It certainly destroyed Hugh. He was never the same from that moment on.’