‘She was taller than most of us then, so she always had to dance man.’

The floor had filled up now and Gussie and her man were dancing close together. He pressed his cheek against her hair, but his eyes wandered lazily around the room. Her eyes were closed in ecstasy and she had a fatuous smile on her face. God, she was just as wet as she had been at school!

Charlie put his hand on my thigh and drained his glass. ‘Shall we go?’ he said.

‘In a minute. Let’s have one more drink.’

The music had stopped, and they were coming off the floor right past our table. I ran my hand through my hair to loosen it and pulled the front piece over one eye.

‘Hullo Gussie,’ I said loudly.

‘For God’s sake,’ whispered Charlie.

Gussie peered through the gloom, blinking.

‘Over here,’ I said.

Suddenly she saw me and gave a shriek of schoolgirl excitement.

‘Goodness, it can’t be, Octavia! Is it really you?’

‘Yes, really me. Come and have a drink.’

Gussie pushed through the tables, pink face shining with excitement, bosom heaving from her exertions.

‘How lovely to see you.’ She kissed my proffered cheek. ‘And looking so stunning too!’

She dragged the blond man forward. ‘This is Jeremy West. It’s a very special evening for us, we’ve just got engaged!’

Engaged! Hence the champagne. At least they weren’t married yet!

‘Congratulations,’ I said, and gave Jeremy West one of my long, hard, smouldering looks. ‘How very exciting.’

He smiled back at me. ‘Yes, isn’t it?’

‘Jeremy darling,’ said Gussie. ‘This is Octavia Brennen. We were at school together, in the same form, but not for very long. Octavia did something perfectly dreadful like eating one of the harvest festival apples in church, so they sent her away. Life was very dull after that.’

‘I can imagine it was,’ said Jeremy West. Oh, how heartbreaking that smile was.