It was almost ten p.m. when Janie caught sight of Mia and Laura standing in the middle of her lawn. A glass of wine hung loosely from Laura’s hand as she jabbed a finger at Mia Anderson. Weirdly, Janie’s first thought was whether it was one of her Dartington crystal glasses, because she wouldn’t have been surprised if Harry had given Laura that. Her second was that Laura clearly looked as if she hadn’t stopped at the one glass of wine she’d mentioned having at the start of the night, and she certainly didn’t look as if she should be driving home. Did she actually plan to leave her car here? Was she going to be back in the morning to collect it?

Laura’s body swayed softly, her feet shuffling as she struggled to regain her balance. At some point in the evening she had shed her shoes and was standing barefoot, her toes curling into Janie’s neatly trimmed grass.

By now all the guests had stopped their conversations, distracted by the spectacle unfurling by the swimming pool. At first Janie hadn’t realised the two women were arguing, but as soon as she had woven through the people who were gawping on the deck, she had a much clearer view.

Mia was standing ramrod-straight, her eyes flared wide as she stared daggers at Laura. A champagne flute was clutched by her side, and Janie imagined the hand drawing up and swiping the side of Laura’s face. She rather hoped it might. Mia certainly looked like she could do so.

Laura’s arms, in contrast, were flailing everywhere, and her face was bright red. She was wobbling precariously close to the pool, which Janie noticed was still uncovered, even though Harry had promised he’d cover it before the party. Talking of her husband, she had no idea where he was, and she glanced desperately around the garden in the hope Harry might come and break up the argument before it got out of hand. But there was no sign of him, so Janie wavered between leaving the scene to find him and going over herself.

She was mid-thought when Laura’s hand, with the wine glass clutched within it, rose again and then suddenly, through some brute force, the woman managed to snap its stem in two.

Mia’s gaze dropped to the ground beneath them as she stepped back. Janie’s followed, but when she looked up Laura appeared not even to have noticed that she might be stepping on broken glass.

Still Harry was nowhere near and, with audible gasps rising from the excited crowd behind her, Janie stormed across the lawn to the two women. She reached out to take the remainder of her precious glass from the hand of Laura, who hadn’t even noticed Janie approaching.