When Caro’s husband had cheated on her, she hadn’t sat back and played the scorned woman. She’d got out there and shown everyone that he couldn’t break her. That she wasn’t going to keep quiet and carry on as she might have been expected to in the past. The press had rather enjoyed the drama, too – especially in the early, raw, painful, pre-Annie days, when Caro’s reactions to her more famous husband’s infidelity had filled endless pages in the gossip columns.

And yes, she’d also been susceptible to too much wine in a hotel bar, and Marcus’s dubious charms. But at least she could console herself that he’d been more of a catch back then. And she’d come to her senses pretty quickly, ended things and sworn off love and romance all together.

Until she met Annie. That had been something neither of them had expected or planned.

Rosalind, on the other hand, had reacted rather differently to being thrown over by Hugh when he married Isobel. She had fallen into the arms of her co-star, married him, and still spent high days and holidays being best buddies with her ex, and the friend everyone knew he cheated on her with. Caro couldn’t claim to know the whole story, but Rosalind’s grace under fire, immaculate manners and the way she’d held her head high and never badmouthed anybody probably went a long way to explaining why she was a national treasure in the media, and Caro was a source of constant amusement.

But Rosalind had never known the satisfaction of setting Hugh’s tie on fire while he was wearing it, like she had done to her ex-husband, so who was the real winner here?

‘We need to get out of here before someone comes looking,’ Posy said, breaking the silence. ‘We can figure out who else Marcus might have been blackmailing in my room.’

‘Do you think this is how someone got in to leave the magnifying glass?’ Caro wondered aloud, as they turned to the bathroom.

Posy paused in opening the door. ‘I hadn’t thought about that. Could it have been Marcus who stole it?’

Rosalind looked to Caro as well, and Caro realised they were both waiting for her to answer. She was the one who had known Marcus best and longest, after all.

She considered. ‘It could. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past him to steal it. Marcus’s sense of morality was always a little more elastic than some.’

‘So we noticed.’ Rosalind brandished the blackmail letter.

‘Anyway, I think—’ she started, but Posy cut her off with a slashing hand and a finger on her lips.

‘There’s someone in my room,’ she breathed.

Caro inched closer to the door and listened. Posy was right. There was movement on the other side of the bathroom.

What would Dahlia do? Oh, well that was easy.