‘No, thanks.’

‘It’s not a request. His name is Callum Ellis. He’s young, but tough and bright. You’ll find him useful. If you need any operational support, we’ll have to call in the army. We can’t risk anyone in Six or Five being tipped off, which is why I used them to keep tabs on you here. Deal?’

He offered her his hand, somewhat absurdly, she thought, but she took it anyway. ‘Deal.’

Grove lingered while he marched back to the car.

‘So, it’s you and me,’ Kate said. ‘Is that my punishment, or yours?’

Grove gave her a thin smile. ‘I’ll leave you to contact Miss Carmichael and find whatever premises you think are most suitable. Let me know as soon as you’re ready to proceed and I’ll introduce you to Callum Ellis. He’s a very smart young man.’

‘I’m sure he is.’

‘Handsome, too,’ Grove said, with the hint of a smile so surprising that Kate stood rooted to the spot as she strode away down the hill.

Stuart, Gus and Fiona were sitting around the breakfast table on the terrace. Stuart poured Kate some coffee and she sat for a moment with her face tilted up to absorb the warmth of the morning sun.

‘So …’ Fiona rasped ‘… are you going to tell us what’s happening?”

Kate was tempted to ask her daughter to wind her neck in, but the cadaverous expression that had become her default setting in the past six months got in the way. Since responsibility for Fiona’s food deprivation and churning anxiety lay firmly at her and Stuart’s door, they’d forfeited that right some time ago.

For a brief moment, Kate wondered how to sugar-coat the events of the last few hours, before deciding to give it to both her children straight. Perhaps they truly were old enough. ‘Well, let’s start at the beginning. I certainly didn’t intend you to find us in bed together—’

‘You don’t have to go on about it.’

It was too late for a U-turn, so Kate drove straight on. ‘I didn’t fully intend it to happen, but it has—’

‘Oh, man,’ Gus chipped in. ‘Too much information.’

‘But let’s just say the good news is that it looks possible that … er … we might … um … And that’s what you both wanted to hear, right?’

Kate caught sight of her husband’s idiotic grin. He looked like he wanted to run around the garden punching the air. Fiona and Gus nodded meekly, though Fiona seemed much less confident of her reaction. Or was that just Kate’s imagination?

‘There are lots of hurdles to overcome and, as I’ve already warned you, there is no guarantee we’ll be able to. But … well, we are where we are.’

‘But what?’ Fiona pressed.

‘But there is a new obstacle, which neither your dad nor I foresaw, though perhaps we should have.’

‘What kind of obstacle?’ Gus asked.

‘The prime minister is going to rescind Dad’s right to travel unless I agree to head up a new investigation to clear his name.’