He lit the cigarette and smoked absently, his eyes on the faraway trees. I waited for a few moments, but he did not speak. Feeling uncomfortable, I busied myself adjusting the angle of my hat.

“Clara, listen to me,” he said at last. “I insist that you and I rub along at Raleigh Court for as long as necessary. This is not your Welsh valley, this is Bayswater.” He considered. “Well, the edge of Maida Vale actually, so that’s even better. No one gives a damn who an actor has in his flat.”

“But when this … this story gets into the newspapers,” I protested, “imagine what they’ll write about us!”

Aidan looked amused. “‘Leading Man and Leading Lady in Love Nest!’ It even alliterates!”

“Please, I’m serious.”

“I know you are, but so am I.” He had stopped smiling and his eyes had got narrow and flinty. “The story, as you call it, may never even get into the newspapers.”

“Exactly!” I was relieved that he had understood. “That’s why I’m going to the police! I know they won’t believe my word against David’s, but at least I’ll have done the right thing, won’t I?”

“Whether they believe you or not, there is no point whatsoever in going to the police,” he said, not condescendingly but merely as a matter of fact. “Their job is to solve crime, and I’m sorry to have to tell you that in this instance no crime has been committed.”

I was nonplussed. “But the man was hiding in the bathroom!”

“Had he broken into the bathroom through the window?”

“No, of course not. David had let him in.”

“And did David attack you, or threaten you with a weapon?”

“No, but he—”

“Pushed you down on the bed, pinned your arms behind you and kissed you passionately?”

“No! Well, that may be what it looked like, but…” Dismay swept over me. “Oh.”

Aidan spoke gently. “The private detective who took the photographs, and who, incidentally, is without doubt well known to the Brighton police, was simply doing his job. David paid him, quite legitimately, to provide evidence in a divorce case. What is really between the two people in the photographs is of no interest to the detective, the police, the lawyers, the judge or anyone else. Evidence is the only thing that counts in law.”

“But … even if the photographs enable David to get his divorce, surely they will ruin his reputation too? He is in them, after all, half naked on a bed with a girl!”

Aidan moved a little nearer to me. “Clara, this is how it works. In cases such as these, the girl is condemned as a scarlet woman, but for the man, especially a man like David, the whole thing merely adds to his glamour. It’s a phenomenon of civilized life that you may have heard of. It’s known as the double standard.”

I looked dejectedly at the muddy lawn that spread before us. It reminded me of the fallow fields around Haverth. But thinking of Haverth hurt my heart. “So there is nothing I can do. David will get away with it, and I will be ruined.”

“Not necessarily.” Aidan dropped his cigarette stub and ground it out with his toe. “When I said the divorce case might never come to court, it was because we might be able to stop it. Don’t laugh, but I think I’ve got an idea.”