The bride was radiant in a white, curve-skimming satin number with a lace capelet that was beaded with sequins.

‘Wow, she looks fabulous,’ Jessica said quietly to Sean. ‘I’ll have to find out where she got that dress.’

He turned towards her and grinned. ‘I imagine it will be way out of our price range, my love.’

She pulled a face and gave a resigned nod. ‘I expect you’re right.’

The formal ceremony went off without a hitch as the couple exchanged vows and rings and in no time at all they were pronounced husband and wife. Jessica knew that, at twenty-nine, Libby was thirteen years younger than Greg, but the age gap wasn’t at all obvious when you looked at the couple.

‘They look like the perfect match to me,’ she whispered to Sean.

During the champagne reception that followed, guests mingled as waiters and waitresses moved around carrying silver trays bearing hors d’oeuvres, champagne flutes and various cocktails. Many of the guests went out into the garden where photographs were taken but no one stayed outside for long because it was bitingly cold unless you stood right next to the heaters dotted around the large, paved terrace.

The first indication Jessica got that it wasn’t going to be a perfect day for everyone came when she left Sean downstairs and went up to their room to use the toilet and put on a wrap.

She was walking along the corridor when a door was flung open and a bearded man in a suit rushed out and almost bumped into her.

‘Mi scusi,’ he said in what Jessica knew to be Italian for excuse me.

Without waiting for her to respond, he strode towards the thickly carpeted stairs. A second later, a woman appeared – Rachel Elliott, the bride’s sister.

She looked distinctly upset and after slamming the room door behind her, she hurried after the man without acknowledging Jessica.

Jessica assumed that it was a lovers’ tiff and hoped that it would soon get resolved, for both their sakes, but half an hour later she spotted Rachel standing by herself at the bar and she looked as miserable as sin. There was no sign of the bearded man.

For a fleeting moment Jessica was tempted to approach her, but Rachel’s sister suddenly appeared, so she held back. The siblings started talking and Jessica was happy to leave them to it.

Within minutes, she’d pushed it all to the back of her mind and didn’t think about it again until an hour and a half later as the wedding breakfast got under way in the main hall.

That was when Sean drew her attention to the fact that the maid-of-honour had not taken her place at the top table.

The seat between Rachel’s father and the groom was empty and it remained so throughout the meal. It was clear to everyone that Rachel’s absence was a source of either concern or irritation for those closest to her as they were no longer smiling and laughing and her father and new brother-in-law kept getting up and leaving the hall for brief spells. Her sister, however, just sat there, rigid as a fence post, and the look on her face conveyed the impression that she wasn’t happy.