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on me.’
    ‘You worked for him, then?’
    ‘That was my first job. Shorthand and general office work at Wildings, Telford Way. A friend of mine’s dad worked there, that’s how I heard of it, but the employment agency sent me there for a vacancy. It was his own firm, making metal address plates. Not very big, but successful, mind,’ she added sharply. ‘It was – what do you call that, when you make something no one else does?’
    ‘A niche, you mean?’ Connolly suggested, after a moment’s thought.
    ‘That’s it. Well, like I say, it was very successful, but because it was a small firm he liked to interview everyone himself, to make sure they’d fit in. Oh, he was very grand, you know. The big boss!’ She curled her lip. ‘But he couldn’t keep his eyes off me, right from the beginning. I know the signs, believe you me. Well, long story short, he wasn’t getting on with his wife at the time, and before you could say knife he was asking me to work late. Then he started driving me home after. Then it was stopping for a drink on the way, then it was taking me out to dinner. One thing led to another, and – well, you know.’
    ‘Yes,’ Connolly assented.
    ‘Of course you do, dear,’ Mrs Wilding said, in generous acknowledgement of Connolly’s not-bad looks. Then she put herself into a different league. ‘I was gorgeous then, believe me.’
    ‘I can see that.’
    ‘Thank you, dear.’ She simpered a little. ‘I could have had anyone, you know. I was seventeen, with my whole life ahead of me. And the next thing I know, I’m pregnant.’
    Connolly did a quick bit of maths and tried not to sound surprised when she said, ‘And would that be . . .?’
    Mrs Wilding waved an impatient hand. ‘No, no. Zellah came later. Well, anyway, he’d been talking for ages about leaving Valerie – that was her name, the cow – and finally he had to put his money where his mouth was. He divorced her and we got married, but it was never the bed of roses he promised me. She’s been bleeding him white ever since.’
    ‘Valerie?’
    ‘The bitch,’ she spat. ‘Nothing was too good for her, was it? Lap of luxury, every comfort for her and the boys. She got the family house, this gorgeous detached house in Acton. While him and I had to start our married life living in his mother’s house. With his mother! I couldn’t believe it when he told me that’s where we’d have to go. It’s no wonder I lost the baby.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’
    ‘Well, I wasn’t. Not really. I was too young to be saddled with a baby then. I wanted to have a bit of fun – and I did after that, believe you me. Dancing, shows, night clubs – I still had too much life in me to settle down to nappies and bottles and all the rest of it. I don’t think Derek minded all that much about the baby, either, though he pretended to, because it would have been extra expense, and he was having to work like a dog anyway, with Lady Muck to support, not to mention school fees for the boys – though why they had to go to private school I don’t know. Like leeches they were, the three of them, sucking the life out of us. No, I was twenty-five when I fell for Zellah, and that wasn’t planned, but at least I’d had a bit of pleasure by then. Though it’s goodbye to all that when you’ve had a baby. Your figure goes, and you’re tied hand and foot. But I never resented it. She was a gorgeous baby from day one, and she just got more gorgeous as she grew up.’ Her eyes filled with tears as reality struck another blow. ‘I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it. Who would do such a thing? This’ll kill him, I’m not kidding you. He thought the sun shone out of her eyes. He’ll never get over this.’
    She stared at Connolly, her large eyes swimming, tears slipping over in an almost theatrical way; but it was not theatrical. There was a world of genuine pain, the real, gritty, unbearable sort that only happens in real life, not on the screen.