As a rule, Andrew avoids touching me. But today, in a gesture that’s proprietary rather than affectionate, I feel his hand lightly against my lower back as he nods towards the path. He clearly doesn’t want to hang around. ‘Shall we go, Elise?’ It isn’t a question, but I’ve no more desire than he has to stay here any longer than necessary.

As we walk home, I casually tell him what the police told me. ‘They know about you and Stephanie.’ Beside me, I feel him tense.

When he speaks, his voice is measured. ‘I’m assuming it wasn’t you who told them.’

Taking a leaf out of Andrew’s book, I avoid answering. ‘Do you think I enjoy being made to look stupid?’

He ignores me. ‘It rather makes one wonder who did.’ I know it’s for my benefit that instead of annoyance, there’s amusement in his voice.

As I keep walking, pulling my coat tighter around me, nausea rises in my throat. I’m sick of him, of everything he does. ‘Have you a new one lined up? A lover, I mean?’ My tone is intentionally, inappropriately light, spelling it out that he can do what he likes but I won’t let him get to me.

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he snarls.

‘Me? Ridiculous?’ But my emotions are too stretched. In spite of my best intentions, I lose it. ‘You’re the one who’s fucking ridiculous, Andrew. Look at you. Your entire life is a façade. Us, your affairs, your holier than thou act with the villagers. But do you know what? No-one’s fooled. And even if they were, they’ll soon see through you. It’ll catch up with you, Andrew. Don’t think it won’t.’

I feel his fingers around my arm, knowing that if my coat wasn’t thick, there’d be red bruising where he’s pinching me. But recklessness seizes me. ‘What are you going to do?’ I’m deliberately goading him, unable to stop myself. ‘This act? The mighty doctor with the wife who’s so important to him? Everyone knows it’s fake.’

In the split second before he reacts, I know I’ve pushed him too far. His hands close around my neck as he slams me against a tree. ‘Bitch,’ he hisses, closer to losing control than I’ve ever seen him. ‘You think you’re so clever, don’t you? You’ll never win, Elise. I know too much about you.’ His eyes glint with hatred. ‘Do you know how easy it would be for me to kill you?’