‘So what went wrong?’ I asked, deeply interested, as you can imagine.

‘She fell for his best man. The first Nathan knew about it was a text message when they were halfway to Scotland.’

‘That’s quite incredible!’ I said. ‘And what on earth was she looking for that Nathan hasn’t got?’

She shrugged. ‘A bit of edge? I think perhaps Nathan is just too nice for his own good.’

I said that nice would be a new quality to me in an agent, since Miracle didn’t do nice with any great conviction, and she said she was glad I’d changed agents because Miracle could be very difficult, not to mention scary.

Then Ruperta said that it was strange how getting the push from her job at Salubrious had led to wonderful new doors opening in both our careers. And I said yes, and the only way was up, failure was not an option. Then over tiramisu I casually mentioned that I was going to do the Wryhove Festival this year and she was deeply impressed, I could tell – and so am I actually. I’d tell Het to stick her ‘little reading session in the library’ at the Shrimphaven Festival of Culture except that she thinks hers is the only festival in the world that matters, and anyway it would make things difficult for Jackie.

This reminded me that I hadn’t sounded Sergei out about the Shrimphaven Festival yet, so when I got home I phoned him, and he was predictably not at all keen on the idea until I swore he wouldn’t have to stand in the fresh air for any part of it (I lied), and mentioned that Lady Het Woodwind-Chote would be personally inviting him to open it. He was such a sucker for any form of title that he was definitely weakening so, if she played her cards right and didn’t mention perry, I thought she’d be in with a chance.

‘My renovations to the back of the house are finished – you must come and see, my darling,’ he said. ‘It is a surprise for you.’

‘I suppose you were having patio doors fitted?’ I suggested, for he’d often mentioned his desire to leap straight from the house into the lush greenery of his garden in order to be at one with nature when the fancy took him, as it very often did.

‘Ah-ha!’ he said annoyingly. ‘If I told you, it would not be a secret.’

I only hoped my first guess was right, and it wasn’t something ghastly like a Jacuzzi, because sitting in a hot festering tub of breeding bacteria is not my idea of fun.