And all of a sudden it mattered terribly. The idea that she might not return his feelings was galling to say the least. It wasn’t the kind of problem he’d ever had to deal with before; he wanted Janey to like him, but how on earth was he going to find out if she did?

Belatedly, Guy realised he was still holding on to her arm. Now he felt plain stupid. Should he carry on and see if she objected, or oh-so-casually let go? It was the kind of dilemma more normally faced by teenagers.

It was his own daughter who came to the rescue. Ella, struggling to disentangle her legs from the tentacles of the squid, slipped off the kerb and landed, with a piercing shriek, flat on her face in the gutter.

She was shaken but not hurt. As he lifted her to her feet and brushed a couple of dry leaves from her white-blond hair, Guy was reminded of his first meeting with Véronique, in another gutter all those years ago. She hadn’t flirted with him either, he recalled; she had simply been herself, take it or leave it, and allowed him to make all the running. Falling in love with her had happened so fast, and had been so easy, he would never have believed at the time that waiting for it to happen again could take so long. But finding someone else to fall in love with, he reflected ruefully, hadn’t been easy at all.

‘You’re all right,’ said Janey, wiping a lone tear from Ella’s cheek with her knuckle. ‘No damage, sweetheart. The squid broke your fall.’

‘He’s hissing.’ Ella stopped crying in order to listen. ‘Ican hear him making a funny noise.’

‘That’s because he’s a hero,’ Janey replied gravely. ‘He saved you from being hurt, and punctured a tentacle in the process. Don’t worry, we’ll stick a plaster on it when we get home.’

By the time they reached the car, Guy had come to a decision. He didn’t want to risk rocking the boat whilst Janey was looking after the children. But Maxine would be back on Sunday, and it would be perfectly in order for him to take Janey out to dinner on Sunday night by way of thanking her for having stepped into the breach. This meant he had two days in which to plan what he was going to say .. .

The traffic was nose to tail along the high street where the fair had set up, so he took a left into the road which would take them past Janey’s shop and up out of the town. He would take her somewhere really special on Sunday, he decided; maybe the new restaurant in Zennor that everyone was talking about. Would vintage champagne impress or alarm her? Should he take the car or would a cab be better? Or how about flying to Paris, would she think he was being flash?

Was that too overthe-top for—?

‘Stop!’ shrieked Janey. ‘Oh my God, stop the car!’

So wrapped up in his own thoughts that for a fraction of a second it seemed as if she had read his mind, Guy slammed on the brakes and screeched to a halt at the side of the road. Janey, white-faced, was staring back at the darkened shop. Guy followed her gaze; something was evidently wrong but he didn’t know what. The windows were still intact, the door hadn’t been smashed down, the building wasn’t going up in flames .. . What is it?’

He put out his hand but she was already struggling out of her seatbelt, still staring and apparently unable to speak. As she fumbled for the door handle he saw how violently her hands were shaking.

‘Janey, what’s the matter?’ He spoke more sharply than he had intended. In the back seat, Josh and Ella were craning their necks in order to see what was going on.

‘Is it a burglar?’ Josh sounded excited. He had glimpsed a figure sitting in the shadows of the recessed entrance to the shop, but burglars, he felt, didn’t usually stop for a rest.

‘It isn’t a burglar.’ Janey’s voice sounded odd, as if she hadn’t used it for a long time.The handle of the passenger door having defeated her, she said numbly, ‘Can you open this for me please?’

‘Who is it?’ Guy had already figured it out for himself but he asked the question anyway.

‘My husband. Alan. It’s ... my husband.’

She was evidently in a state of deep shock. Guy hesitated, wondering what he should do. At this moment he doubted whether Janey could even stand upright, let alone cross the road unaided.

He was also seized, quite abruptly, with the almost overwhelming urge to cross the road himself and batter Alan Sinclair to a pulp. Because he wasn’t dead, he’d never been dead, and he had no right to put Janey through two years of hell and still have the nerve to be alive.

‘Why don’t you wait here?’ He spoke in soothing tones,as if she were a child. ‘Just stay in the car and let me speak to him.’

But Janey turned to stare at him as if he had gone irredeemably mad. What?’

Josh and Ella, in the back seat, listened in dumbstruck silence.

‘I said, let me just—’

‘I heard you,’ she replied through gritted teeth. ‘And ‘I can’t believe you have the bloody nerve to even think of such a thing. If you saw your wife, Guy, what would you do? Sit in the car and let me go and have a word with her?’

As a counter-attack it was horribly below the belt, but Janey didn’t even stop to consider what she was saying.

‘Véronique is dead,’ Guy murmured. ‘Your husband is alive.’

‘Of course he’s alive,’ shrieked Janey, almost beside herself with rage. ‘That’s why I’d quite like to see him, you stupid bastard, except that I can’t bloody see him because you won’t switch off the stupid child-lock on this stupid bloody door!’

He flicked the switch.

‘There. Janey, all I’m saying is be careful. Ask yourself why he left and why he’s decided to come back.’

But it was too late. She was already out of the car.

‘Oh Dad!’ wailed Ella, as he put the car into gear. ‘This is exciting! Can’t we stay and watch?’

‘No.’ Guy’s jaw was set, the expression in his eyes unreadable. ‘We can’t.’

Chapter 37

‘My God, I don’t believe it,’ sighed Maxine. ‘What is this, some kind of sick joke? Did they move April Fool’s day?’

Bruno put his hand out to steady her glass, which was tilting alarmingly.

‘Careful,’ he said, at the same time admiring her cleavage. ‘Didn’t you read the government health warning on the bottle? Red wine on a white dress can seriously damage your night.’

The dress, which had cost a scary amount of money, was an Azzedine Alaia. Moreover, it belonged to Cindy, who had threatened her with certain death if anything untoward happened to it. Mindful of the warning, Maxine placed the glass on a table out of harm’s way.

‘My night’s already been damaged,’ she said rudely. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

Bruno grinned. ‘Just one of those fateful coincidences, I suppose. Jamie Laing’s an old friend of mine. When he called last week and invited me to the party I didn’t even think I’d be able to get up here, but my new assistant manager was keen to work this weekend, so ...’ He shrugged and gestured around the room. ‘It seemed likea nice idea. Now why don’t I ask how you came to be invited to this party? Or maybe it isn’t a coincidence at all. Maybe you’re following me.’

‘Oh, absolutely,’ declared Maxine, the words dripping sarcasm. But the urge to show off was simply irresistible. Glimpsing a semi-familiar face in the crowd, she waved over Bruno’s shoulder, realizing too late that the face belonged to an actor whom she had only seen on television. At least Bruno hadn’t witnessed the actor’s blank stare. ‘Sorry, so many old friends,’

she said airily. ‘Me? Oh, Jamie’s a darling, isn’t he? I’ve been up here all week, shooting a commercial with him. It’s all gone wonderfully well, he’s predicting great things for me if I decide to give the acting business another go.’

‘So you’d leaveTrezale?’ Bruno, equally unable to resist putting her down, looked sympathetic. ‘Oh dear, you mean persuading Guy Cassidy that you were the woman of his dreams didn’t work out? Must have been a bit of a kick in the teeth for you.’

‘A kick in the teeth for me?’ Maxine gave him a condescending smile. ‘Bruno, men like you are the reason women like me wear stiletto heels. Is being obnoxious a hobby of yours, or are you just particularly miffed because I turned down your own touching little offer of a quickie in the back seat of your car?’

She was wonderful, he thought, filled with silent admiration. He adored almost everything about Maxine Vaughan, from those fabulous bare shoulders right down to that pair of ridiculously high heels. But if the body was terrific, the mind was even more entrancing. She could trade insults like no female he had ever met before, she was sharp and funny, a talented liar, and out for everything she could possibly get.They were alike in every way. Best of all, he thought with a barely suppressed smile, she was as mad about him as he was about her.

‘I wasn’t miffed,’ he replied easily, leaning against the wall and running his fingers carelessly through his hair. The emerald-green wallpaper matched his eyes and offset his deep purple jacket to perfection. ‘You were being loyal to your sister; an admirable quality in any girl, but especially you.’

He thought he looked so great, thought Maxine, with all that streaky blond hair and that toffee-brown tan. He was only resting against the wall because the colour of it went so well with his jacket. And he had some nerve, too; you had to be unbelievably un-gay in order to get away with wearing a jacket like that over an ochre tee-shirt and pale yellow trousers. She was only surprised it wasn’t smothered in bloody sequins .. .

‘I told Janey she should never have got involved with you,’ she declared, ignoring the last jibe. ‘I knew exactly what would happen and I was right. Tell me, does it give you some kind of thrill, finding some vulnerable female and tearing her to pieces like that?’