There was a pause. Willow wondered why she’d taken such a dislike to the man. Perhaps it was just because he reminded her of a former lover and she should learn to be more objective. ‘Tell me a little bit about yourself, Mr Wentworth. What do you do for a living?’ She made her voice warm to compensate for the antipathy.

‘I run my own tour company. Specialist travel to North Africa and the Middle East for people who want to stray off the beaten track, but are a little nervous about doing it on their own.’ He paused. ‘Sorry, that sounds like a sales pitch. I took a gap year before university and got the travel bug. Worked for other people for a while, then I set up for myself. I don’t need to advertise these days. Most of my work comes from word-of-mouth recommendation. I specialize in elderly Americans. Very wealthy elderly Americans.’ He gave her a quick grin, but she didn’t respond.

‘How did you meet Ms Gilmour?’ Willow thought they made an odd couple: the rangy tour leader and the quiet librarian.

‘She came on one of my holidays. Morocco. Taroudant and the Atlas Mountains. The rest of the group had an average age of seventy and didn’t want to wander much from the hotel pool or the minibus, so we spent a lot of time together. She’s a kind woman.’ He looked up suddenly. ‘Kindness is very attractive, don’t you think?’

Willow didn’t know how to answer that. She was beginning to feel impatient, but she was aware of Perez in the corner. His skill was patience. Letting a silence stretch until it was filled by a witness.

And eventually Marcus continued talking. ‘She’s not my usual type actually. I tend to go for girls who are more extrovert. Perhaps more like me. But something about Polly has got under my skin. I even took her to meet my mother a couple of weeks ago. Mother usually hates my girlfriends, but they got on like a house on fire. Perhaps it’s about time I considered settling down.’ He paused, suddenly embarrassed, and gave a little laugh. ‘Sorry, you don’t want to know all about my love life. But I was pleased when Polly asked me to this wedding. I thought she must like me. I mean, you wouldn’t want to spend a whole week with someone if you couldn’t stand their company. Would you?’ This time it was Marcus who waited for the silence to be filled.

Perez spoke. ‘What did you make of the relationship between Ian and Eleanor?’

Marcus seemed startled by his question, almost as if he’d forgotten that the Shetlander was in the room. ‘Oh, I hadn’t known them long enough to have an opinion.’

‘They’re your partner’s two best friends. You’d have discussed it, surely. Especially as Eleanor had been going through a hard time.’

‘I don’t think Ian was Polly’s friend,’ Marcus said carefully. ‘They don’t have much in common. He’s very ambitious, very driven. She treats her work as a vocation. I’m sure she’d do it even if she wasn’t being paid.’