Bianca had been dancing till she dropped, passed from one of her Masters to the other, laughing in joy. Her friends were watching, smiling, Serena with her prominent baby bump, Jamie, her Captain, beside her, looking at his love with such tenderness, it made Bianca want to cry. And Siobhan, who had arrived and left, all in a flash.

They watched her, indulgently.

But Bianca was also aware of other people looking their way. Strangers who watched her and her men, people who sniggered behind their hands as they whispered.

St Just caught her looking at one woman, a heavily made-up blonde of around thirty, who kept looking at Bianca,...