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who had been whispered to on the subject. “If I was Mum I’d be suspicious.”
    â€œMaybe. But Mum has this instinct for not rocking the apple cart.”
    â€œBoat,” said Alexander. “If I was the latest in a long line of girlfriends and mistresses, which seems to be the case, my suspicion antennae would be perpetually on the quiver.”
    â€œSo would mine. But Mum’s used to all this in theatrical circles. Let’s face it, Marius acts no worse than most of Mum’s friends.”
    â€œOr our beloved elder sister, come to that.”
    â€œThe man-eater. The human boa constrictor. She was on tenterhooks yesterday, wasn’t she? I think she’s thrown over that tenor. Pity—I thought he was dishy. I might ask her, ‘Got a spare tenor, lady?’”
    â€œVery funny. Knowing her she’ll have someone else already.”
    â€œMaybe we should have said we’d go to Forza . Try and spot which of the cast is her current.”
    â€œCould be the director, or designer, or lighting man.”
    â€œCan’t see her stooping to the lighting man. Still, you’re right. It wouldn’t be worth sitting through three or four hours of opera on the off-chance. But she’s really a cat in heat, isn’t she?”
    â€œExcept that she’s in heat the whole time…. She had a letter on Thursday morning.”
    Stella looked at him, puzzled.
    â€œWhy shouldn’t she?”
    â€œShe was supposed to have come on Wednesday night on an impulse, to get away from things operatic.”
    â€œShe used to get letters when she was here for three weeks last summer. Possibly someone’s still got this address for her.”
    â€œMaybe. She snatched it when I took it in to her while she was practicing, and didn’t look at it while I was there…. Marius said Ghastly Guy might be coming with him in a fortnight’s time.”
    â€œGuy’s not so bad.”
    â€œHe’s only got one topic of conversation.”
    Stella hardly bothered to suppress a smile. “He may be mad about money but I prefer him to Helena. Bossy little thing she is. At least she won’t be coming. At home tending her mother over those first few difficult weeks. Yuck!”
    â€œThey’ve probably both had difficult childhoods, what with Marius’s affairs and all that.”
    â€œJust like us. We seem to be surrounded by multiple adulterers.” They looked at each other. “Marvelous that we’ve grown up so normal and nice, isn’t it?”
    They roared with laughter, but as Alexander saw the bus approaching and put out his arm for it, he said, “I just hope Mum knows what she’s doing, that’s all.”
    â€œWhen has she ever known that ?” said Stella.

Chapter 6
Behind the Idyll
    The next weekend was a rare one away from home for Caroline. It was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first Fleetwood’s supermarket, in Cardiff, and Marius was obliged to be there and speak at the celebratory dinner. He wanted Caroline with him, or at least near him, and though she probably disliked such occasions as much as Sheila (who had flatly refused to go) she agreed to accompany him, to sit discreetly at one of the lower tables, and to take nominal occupancy of an adjacent suite in the hotel.
    â€œIf it was any other sort of do we wouldn’t have to be so hole-in-the-corner,” said Marius. “But a Fleetwood company event with lots of flattering publicity calls for caution.”
    So Caroline undertook a horrendous journey on Virgin Trains which left her feeling dirty and angry, and the two children had the house to themselves. Caroline felt she knew them well enough to trust they would not throw an orgy, suddenly start in on sex and drugs. With Olivia, at the same age, she would have been more apprehensive.
    In fact, as Stella remarked to her brother, it was a hideously dull weekend. If Alexander had been old