‘It’s not really a good time,’ I check behind me, as if seeing if something is burning, or someone is calling to me. I don’t think Rupert would be very happy to know Mags came over. Ever since she upset me at the flat, he’s had no time for her. ‘I’m just in the middle of something.’

‘Right. Too busy, eh? Thought you might be.’ Mags yanks at the dog’s lead, pulling her away from the front door. Tiny responds by pissing up the stone lion that flanks the right-hand side of the porch, and I feel a bubble of annoyance popping in my belly. ‘She’s forgotten all about her old friends, Tiny.’

‘Mags, come on for goodness’ sake, I didn’t mean it like that,’ I say, pointing at the lion, ‘but you can’t just turn up here unannounced and then let that bloody dog piss all over my house.’

‘Your house, eh? Don’t forget your roots, Em.’ Mags raises an eyebrow, that familiar grin replaced by a quirky, lopsided smile that I haven’t seen before. ‘I came over because I told you I had mail for you and you still didn’t bother to come and collect it.’ It’s only now that I remember Mags telling me that, and I notice a small card and a package in Mags’s hand.

‘It won’t be anything important, that’s why I didn’t bother with it,’ I say cautiously. The stark white paper, the word BITCH etched into it in inky black, angry letters floats in front of my eyes.

‘Well, it is nearly Christmas and it looks like a card. I was hoping you’d come and visit and when you didn’t I thought maybe you wouldn’t mind if I came to you. The parcel isn’t from the flat, by the way. It was in your porch,’ Mags says, holding it out as she peers past me into the hallway.

‘Oh. Thank you. Look, Mags, I’m sorry I didn’t come over, things just got away from me, you know.’ I hold my hand out for the package, a flutter of nerves making my skin sing as I take it. Hand delivered is written in tiny letters in the corner. ‘I didn’t realize you knew where I lived.’ I did, of course I did, ever since she mentioned the stone lions that day, but I want to see how she knows. If she has told Harry.

‘God, Em, you’re not that hard to find, you know,’ Mags snorts. ‘All I had to do was google Rupert. Before he married you, him and the first wife were all over the media. Glitzy society bits, you know. It didn’t take me long to find out where you lived.’