Florrie would reminisce for hours. But it didn't bore Jean, who never tired of hearing about an early life so different from her own ultra-respectable middle-class upbringing.

Florrie was continuing now, talking almost to herself. 'Worst choice John ever made, marrying Clara. I can understand why he did it: he thought Agatha and Dorothy needed a mother. And Clara could really turn on the charm, when she needed to. I don't know why she cut herself and the girls off from me completely after John's death: jealousy, maybe, or snobbery. Yet I was always nice to her. I never let it show that she was a disappointment to me, after Emma. Then, when the girls are grown up, she suddenly realises I'm getting on, and she ought to make sure I don't get my own back by cutting them out of my will. So she brings them to see me, and fawns all over me, saying how fond she is of me. Lying cat. And Dorry just sits there, staring at the carpet and fiddling her thumbs, and Agatha is red in the face and fuming. Very painful. Only happened once, though.'

'Well, you did tell her you found three visitors rather tiring'

'I was hinting it would be nice to see the girls on their own. But she wouldn't have that.'

'Still, you do see Agatha regularly now. I was amazed later on when I answered the door one day and there she was, in jodhpurs and all her motor-cycling outfit.'

'Yes, she's one of a kind, is Agatha. But imagine having to come secretly, so her stepmother doesn't find out! And Dorry so cowed she never comes at all and from what Agatha says is not much more than an unpaid skivvy.'

'Agatha seems to have made an independent life for herself.'

'As far as she could. She ought to get out of that house. But, of course, she's got no money. What they get under my will is going to make a difference, though.'


Chapter Two

'You're not going to get away with it, you loathsome old woman,' said the voice on the phone.

Clara Saunders gasped and nearly dropped the receiver. She was about to slam it down, but some instinct stopped her. Managing with great self-control to keep her voice steady, she said coolly: 'Who is that?'

'Oh, this is nobody at all. Nobody of any importance.' The words were slightly slurred, the voice husky It could have been a man or a woman.

'Obviously true. Equally obviously you're drunk.'

'Oh yes, I'm drunk. And you know why? Because you've ruined my life.'

'You're insane.'

'Don't play the injured innocent. You sent that piece to the paper about me, you bitch.'

Clara drew her breath in sharply. But she wasn't going to take this sort of thing lying down. 'How dare you speak to me like that, you uncouth, insolent creature!'

'Insolent? How can one be insolent to a slimy toad like you?'

'I am not going to stand here and listen to insults from a contemptible, cowardly drunk. And let me warn you that if you call again—'

'No, let me warn you, my fine lady, that you're not going to get away with it.' The voice got louder. 'You'll pay, yes, you'll pay.