I tap my fingers on my desk. My stomach tightens. We need Sasha Reznikovitch’s money, ASAP. She is an oligarch’s daughter, who dances with the Moscow Royal Ballet. And we need some more work to come in. Maybe I should try and take another client. But then, when I’m busy I can only just manage as I am.

The telephone rings and I pick up. My brother-in-law Aiden’s amiable voice chirrups down the line. ‘I’m in the area. Do you have time for a quick lunch?’

There was a time when it was Julie he would have popped in to see.

‘As a matter of fact I do, yes.’

And my spirits lift. Aiden is pushy and bombastic. But he is good company.

Three hours later, we meet in his favourite restaurant, Boisdale’s. Old English. Oak panelling and oil paintings. Stiff white tablecloths. When I arrive Aiden is sitting at a table in the corner, waiting for me.

Aiden. Miles’ younger brother. So like Miles, but not as good-looking. Aiden’s face and body have been softened by an overdose of adipose tissue. Missing Miles’ patience and kindness, he is edgy and raucous. But what Aiden has missed in serenity and looks he has gained in financial success. We are comfortable, but Caprice has boosted our finances big time. Miles has a lecturer’s salary and let’s face it – although I haven’t told my family yet, my business is on the line.

Aiden is an entrepreneur. His business, selling innovative grease traps for London pubs and restaurants, turns over ten million a year. He has a mews house in Chelsea, a chalet in St Moritz, and a villa in Barbados (the expensive end).

Today he sits opposite me, lowering his chin, widening his well-cushioned jowls.

‘How’s life going for my favourite girl?’ he asks, leaning across the table and putting his hand on my arm.

I know why I’m his favourite girl: because he is in competition with Miles. I guess, and have guessed for years, that Julie, despite marrying Aiden, always secretly preferred her childhood sweetheart Miles. They split up when he left home to go to Cambridge. Almost immediately, she took up with Aiden, when he was on a weekend exeat from Charterhouse.

Before he put on weight. When he still played a lot of sport.

I suspect she took up with Aiden to claw back Miles’ attention, but Julie’s ploy didn’t work. He and I met during our first term at Trinity College Cambridge, and have been an item ever since. So even if she hoped to, Julie never had another look-in with him.