Veronica looked her up and down then glanced towards Douglas who was still occupied with constructing his little piece of suburbia with Arthur and Jasmine, before fixing her gaze on Evie. ‘Surely you’re not in the Pudding Club?’

Jasmine looked up. ‘What’s the Pudding Club?’

Quickly, Evie said, ‘It’s for people who eat too much Christmas pudding.’ She was damned if Jasmine was going to find out about her condition from Veronica Leighton. She’d tell her herself in her own good time.

Arthur looked mortified. He threw an apologetic glance at Evie and said, ‘That’s enough, Veronica.’

Jasmine, oblivious, said, ‘Mummy’s not in it as she hardly had any pudding at all.’

‘Mummy?’ Veronica’s eyebrows shot up. ‘I say!’

‘Veronica!’ Arthur’s voice was low but the anger in his tone unmistakeable.

Douglas, evidently bored with the Bayko kit, got up and flung himself into a chair. ‘Mrs Leighton’s right, Jasmine. It’s time for bed.’

Jasmine picked up Shirley Temple and asked Evie, ‘Will you come up and read me a story, Mummy?’

Relieved to escape, Evie took her step-daughter’s hand, asked the guests to excuse her, and left the room with Jasmine.

As she went up the stairs she could hear Veronica begin her inquisition of Douglas and she hoped he would tell her nothing. She didn’t want news of her pregnancy to be spread around George Town by the malicious Veronica.

Half an hour later, after Jasmine was asleep, Evie ventured back downstairs, full of trepidation. The drawing room was deserted and she could hear the murmur of voices coming from the garden. She picked up the scattered pieces of Bayko from the floor and put them back in the box, moving the half-finished house onto a side table, ready for Jasmine to finish tomorrow. Her back was turned to the garden when she felt a hand on her arm. Spinning round, she came face-to-face with Arthur. Her heart thumped inside her ribcage.

‘I’m really sorry,’ he said. ‘About everything. Her behaviour yesterday at the tennis club and just now. She promised me that if I agreed to come tonight she would apologise to you, but she hasn’t and instead she’s made matters worse.’ He glanced behind him. ‘Is she right? Are you having a baby?’ His face looked stricken.

She nodded. ‘Please don’t tell her.’

His mouth was a tight line. ‘She’ll have wormed it out of Doug by now.’

‘No, she won’t.’ She said it with certainty.

Arthur frowned.

‘I think we should go outside and join them.’ She realised her voice sounded clipped, abrupt.

‘Evie?’ Arthur looked at her pleadingly. ‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. Why have you been avoiding me? I–’

She cut him short. ‘Look, Arthur, I don’t want to hear it. You went straight home and told Veronica about what happened at the beach. I thought I could trust you. Did you both have a good laugh at my expense?’ The suppressed anger rose up inside her.

He looked aghast. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said nothing to her. Why, in God’s name, would I tell her?’