‘We’ll discuss it later,’ he murmured in her ear and she knew he was still angry with her from their disagreement earlier.

‘Darling! You look radiant!’ her mother trilled, looking newly trim from her 48- hour flash visit to the Mayr clinic in Austria, where she had had to chew every mouthful of food one hundred times before swallowing. She always popped over there before any ‘big event’ and Mouse had made her laugh in the lifts on the way down, impersonating their mother’s deeply ingrained need to always keep the small talk going at dinner while everyone was busy counting.

‘Hello, Mama, you look beautiful.’

‘I’m glowing from the inside, Lotty darling. To see my eldest daughter marrying the man of her dreams has always been my greatest wish.’ She reached over and squeezed her future son-in- law’s hand. ‘You make such a beautiful couple and I just know you’re going to be so happy together.’ Charlotte stretched her smile wider as everyone nodded. ‘Now all I need to worry about is finding someone equally suitable for Mouse.’

‘Ha, don’t hold your breath,’ Mouse muttered with a roll of her eyes and another swig of fizz, before seeing her mother’s expression. ‘By which I mean, Lotts has snagged the last of the good ones. I swear old Stevie here was the best man left in London.’

‘You’ll have to travel then,’ Charlotte winked, immediately banishing from her mind the pop-up image of Nathan, in Spain, in bed.

She determinedly sipped more of her champagne, allowing her gaze to travel the room. Most of the guests were from the groom’s side: friends from school, Sandhurst, the corporate finance world, some High Court contacts of his father . . . She had perhaps thirty people there, most of them friends from school and Cambridge. She hadn’t invited anyone from work; unlike her fiancé, she preferred to keep her private and professional lives separate.

It was interesting – amusing, in fact – watching the two sides mix. She could see her friend Bee caught in conversation with Stephen’s father, Toby. There was a lot of earnest nodding going on, heads tilted empathetically; Bee looked and sounded the part – her father was a viscount – but Charlotte wondered whether Toby, a High Court judge, would be quite so enamoured by her if he knew that Bee had been their main weed dealer in sixth form.

Stephen’s mother on the other hand was excitably holding court with Jules and clearly oblivious to the fact that he was her future daughter-in- law’s ex-husband. She watched Harriet’s extravagant hand gestures, the feather bouncing wildly in her fascinator – Jules tended to have that effect on women, regardless of age or marital status. He was leaning against a pillar, one hand stuck in his trouser pocket, and letting her talk, regarding her with that insouciant gaze that made most of them capitulate. He was irritatingly beautiful – straight, dark hair, ever-smiling mouth, dancing eyes. It was little wonder he had seduced and impregnated his future sister-in- law too.