Apologies for the delay and many thanks to those who reviewed the last chapter.

Harry House. Approx 10.30 pm

It was one thing to decide to confide in Harry, quite another to actually do so. As Jane opened her mouth she was reminded of the goldfish they'd once bought the children as pets. Lips curving in movement with no sound emitted. Possibly, like Jane, the goldfish had been uttering a silent scream at the stripping away of its last vestige of personal privacy.

Harry, who had settled into his chair, was maintaining a Trappist style rule of silence, which was about the only monastic characteristic he could ever lay claim to. He knew from his training that few could withstand endless silence, usually, eventually, the desire to fill that echoing gap became overwhelming. While he completely understood why Jane was struggling with the concept of trusting him he could only bide his time until she found her own route to narrating the details that had remained locked inside her for months. He sat back, sipping his wine as he waited, not unaware that he treating her as a subject for interrogation. Regnum Defende continued to cast its long shadow across their intertwined lives.

After a few minutes Jane demonstrated the truth of the theory as she finally began to murmur haltingly, "It's difficult to know where to start. In retrospect I think the fault lines were beginning to appear around the time you rescued Catherine in the Lebanon. I just didn't realise it. I suppose the whole situation was a little like walking on ice." She paused to gather her thoughts. "You think it's secure, you don't notice the small hairline cracks, when you do they seem so small so you ignore them. Gradually they deepen, but you still think the ice will bear your weight so you try to patch them up and then one day you turn around and realise that despite your best efforts you're drifting on an ice floe, alone, not sure how you got there or how to escape."

Her voice held a note of such distress that Harry, despite his earlier vow to remain mute, decided a prompt was in order, "So when did the cracks start and how?"

"I suppose you could say ambition and age – not mine, Robin's. He decided that careerwise he was in a rut and needed to give the world at large the benefit of his expertise."

The biting contempt with which she uttered the last few words suggested that Jane's travails hadn't completely reduced her to the status of a wet rag. While her tone was music to Harry's ears his stilled tongue lay in grave danger of being bitten through so firmly were his teeth clamped together. Harry could still recall in microscopic detail the nauseating, overblown praise Jane had bestowed upon Robin at the start of their affair. Considerations relating to the ethics of bugging her as he sought to confirm his suspicions, or the fact that he himself was hardly a pattern card of fidelity, had weighed lightly in that particular balance. Her furious protests that she was being maligned had also cut no ice with an aggrieved, irate Harry. At the time he'd believed that her innocence, if any, had been purely technical. If the thought was father to the deed then she'd been shadowed everywhere by Robin's invisible progeny. And the idea that she'd been gagging for it with that smarmy prat...! Going into battle with the good old double standard swirling proudly above his head Harry's fists had substituted where words had failed him. The technicolor regression into times past was interrupted by her next words.

"So he took on part time work with OFTED plus he got himself head hunted by one of those private companies that makes a fortune out of employing talented, experienced educational experts to go around schools advising staff on how to improve their performance and be inspirational teachers."

'The only thing he'd ever inspire in most right thinking males is a desire to punch him, hard. I never did notice whether or not his nose mended straight?'

For once his face must have conveyed his thoughts with exactitude for she added defensively, "I know your opinion, but I'll give Robin that he was a good Headmaster and he'd been in post for years. I understood why he wanted to do something different. I suppose that most of us, when we hit our fifties, become aware of time passing. Now or never. We all need to reappraise before we've retired with regrets for things not attempted."

It was perhaps fortunate for Harry that Jane was staring into her wineglass as she sought for the inspiration with which to continue along her pathway of self mortification, otherwise her normally piercing gaze would have spotted his momentary stricken look as her words struck him with the force of a hurricane. Calling upon the mantra of 'self control, self denial' voiced so long ago to the woman, who in his mind, personified the regrets of his lifetime, he reminded himself firmly that this discussion was not about him, it was about Jane. The contrast though; his divorce from Jane had been due to the absence of that hard won control. His never quite complete relationship with Ruth had suffered from its ruthless application; neither of them putting their personal desires first, until those three final minutes before ... Alerted by the absence of sound he returned his attention to Jane who remained uncharacteristically speechless. Spurred on by an overwhelming urge to breach her dam of secrecy he ventured a leading question.

"So what was the problem then?" 'Apart from his entire personality.'

It was the battering ram she'd needed. "The real difficulties began to rear their heads gradually over the next eighteen months or so. You see that sort of post, job, contract, call it what you will, if you want to become a big noise..."

"And I assume that Robin did." 'Breaking wind and shit from more than one orifice in the process.'

"Yes, and that involves some assiduous networking which requires a fair amount of entertaining and being entertained, nothing wrong with that ... I suppose." The downbeat inflection with which she uttered this implied a certain lack of conviction. Harry, accustomed to the fawning shoals of the political and Old Boy network, had no difficulty in empathising with her understated abhorrence. Lost in fellow feeling he nearly missed her next statement, "but the conversation tended to be shop, mainly revolving around the schools they went into. Remember I was still a classroom teacher dealing with the multitude of issues and pressures we face every day. The way the assembled company spoke about their client schools..." Jane was attempting to keep her voice even, but Harry detected a definite undertow of indignation, ''... no recognition of the problems, no follow through or return to advise or even see how it would work...it was as if they were talking about a race of sub standard morons. Whenever I tried to venture a contrary opinion – and I promise you I wasn't strident - it was as if I was a non person."

"And Robin –what was his view?" 'Which got browner I wonder, his nose or his tongue?'

"Variable. His material and advice was good and practical, classroom based. I've no objection to advisers as such, but it needs to be tailored to individual circumstance and part of an ongoing programme. Privately Robin was asking for my input. Publicly he didn't want to support my opinions in case it damaged his prospects. I didn't like it, but tried to understand his point."

"Which was?"

Jane's entire demeanour indicated the unhappiness that she'd striven to deny for months. "He needed these people for work so could I please remember that, and also that ultimately he was on my side."

'Just in case they realised that he was a hypocritical shit who was creaming off your skills without even a thank you.'

Harry presumed that Jane's reluctance to confide in him sprang from her recognition that Harry had been right all along about his successor. The relief he felt in Jane's acknowledgment of Robin's true colours was drowned in anger the instant he met those agonised but searching grey eyes pleading for his understanding. How could Robin have treated her so badly? But then had he himself been any better as a husband? The internal debate as to which of them had proved the crappier partner would, for now, have to take a back seat to Jane's continuing explanation.

"The final straw for me was when we had to give a dinner party, I forget why. Anyway there I was in my own home having to listen for the umpteenth time to someone who hasn't really worked in the field on a regular basis for years..."

He couldn't resist, "You mean you entertained the DG..."noting the Jane glare he apologised, "Sorry."

Jane decided to ignore his interjection. "As I said, I was sitting there listening to my classroom colleagues being slagged off for the umpteenth time, and thinking, this is my home, I have a good degree from a top university, years of experience and my opinions are just as valid as yours. So I made a few choice comments to the effect that before we had the requirement to drag IT into every lesson and spend endless hours on student centred learning projects results seemed to be better, plus reading books happens to be a prerequisite in my subject."

"And Robin?" 'Tell me he at least had the balls to defend you.'

"Just sat there agreeing that perhaps I needed a refresher in modern teaching methods." Harry, watching Jane reliving the experience could only imagine the fire banked fury of the occasion. Her next words confirmed this, "Well you can imagine the row after they left. Let's just say that we indulged ourselves in a mutual recrimination session during which the terms Luddite and Quisling were used quite extensively. I ended the argument by refusing to accompany him to any more evenings like that, and saying that if he wanted a designer accessory for a wife he shouldn't have married me." Jane paused, she could see by the darkening of Harry's eyes that his temper was rising, and so far she'd only served up the entree.

Harry, suppressing his emotions, managed a bland response, "I'm assuming thereafter that you weren't top of the dinner guest list."

"Shame wasn't it. Anyway I thought we'd reached an accommodation, if he felt he had to go he went on his own while I made an excuse. Then we moved to yuppie land, another of Robin's notions as he fancied life in the country."

'I'll be he did, patronising the locals no doubt.'

"Actually I was quite in favour of the idea. The opportunity to enjoy the changing seasons, take the odd walk without being mown down by a speeding cyclist." She gave a small sigh, "That was before I discovered that we were considered acceptable for admission into the Sunday drinks and summer barbeque crowd. As I was still truanting from the dinner party circuit I compromised by accompanying him to those excruciating events. Suffice it to say that it's a minor miracle that I didn't become a raving alcoholic trying to survive through them."

Harry did begin to wonder as to whether she was gilding the story slightly, "Come on Jane, drinks and food aren't bad, it couldn't be any worse than the political receptions I'm forced to attend."

That opinion was instantly slapped down. "At least you can say it's work and you have the opportunity for some intelligent conversation. 'Jane if I ever introduce you to any politicians you'll be taking that one back.' For your information these occasions consisted of Robin waltzing around the crowd doing the great I am, leaving me stuck on a sofa listening to a group of women who fancy that they justify their existence by becoming professional mothers. To which end they indulge in never ending oneupmanship relating to their high achieving children. To give you some idea of the sheer bloody social torture, this group includes the woman Laura rang today, who endless witters about the brilliance of her terminally dim offspring, plus another who thinks that because her daughters take riding lessons they've joined the county set. For obvious reasons I'm vague about Graham. My son the reformed junkie wouldn't cut it, although they'd probably think I was being ironical, and I daren't mention Catherine."

For the first time in her autobiographical catch up Harry was cross with her. "Jane. I appreciate why you keep quiet about Graham, but Catherine is nothing to be ashamed of."

"I know that. Actually I'm very proud of her, not least for retaining her sanity in the midst of warring parents, her needy brother and a posturing stepfather, but most of these people have children who think they're God's gift to the arts, especially Emma Winnick. If I once mention my daughter the filmmaker..."

Harry's lips twitched, "Apologies for misunderstanding. I'd have been tempted to introduce her. I can just imagine what Catherine would do with such a pretentious crowd."

"So can I, but unfortunately I do live there." She paused before saying, "And now this is where you do need to keep a grip on your temper Harry."

He registered the ominous quiver in her voice. "I'll try, but no promises I can't keep, not any longer where you're concerned anyway."

Taking a deep breath Jane pressed onwards, "Our compromise was just about working. Then the new Head was appointed at the school I was working in. I'll not repeat what I told you earlier, but what I didn't say is that he's highly regarded as an innovator. Obviously I didn't like him but when he and Robin came across each other at a conference they got on like a house of fire, one that had been petrol bombed. It made the recent love in the Downing Street garden look like a preliminary divorce hearing. Next thing I know Robin's been invited onto the governing body as an associate governor. Result, not only am I having to spend my time coping with the havoc this over praised plonker is creating at school but I have to spend my evenings, when Robin was at home, being told how wonderful the bloke is and how I'm really – well it was like the dinner party row all over again, I'm out of date etc."

Harry cast her look of sympathy, "Welcome to the dinosaur club," adding, "I think Erin thought I'd give Laura her cards for that comment but I don't fire people for being truthful. I've been called worse."

"True, mainly by me. I'm not apologising by the way, you deserved it."

Harry let that pass, curiosity overcoming his desire to argue against the inarguable. "So Jane what happened with Robin being on the governing body when you where assaulted by that pupil?"

Jane's face displayed the residual pain as she sought for the words. "Basically he was on the Head's side. I was out of date, ought to go, he was sure he could fix for me to take early retirement. He didn't want the embarrassment of his wife being dismissed, not good for his career and mine was now washed up." Jane's glance at Harry informed her that he was still in control of his emotions, but the flushing of his face suggested it was hardly won battle.

'Self control, self denial – it has its uses.'

"I was really furious as I knew that I'd done my job correctly and this was an excuse to hang me out to dry. 'God I know that feeling.' I wasn't going to crawl away and I was angry that he seemed only concerned with himself."

The unspoken thought was unavoidable, "He always was. I did try to tell you Jane. I only wish you had sussed him earlier, like about twenty five years ago. We may still have divorced but perhaps we'd have remained on reasonable terms..?' Pulling away from that speculation Harry redirected his concentration towards Jane's personal soap opera.

"After I told him that I now knew from whence Graham had acquired his 'me, me, me' attitude, I shouted that I was going down fighting whatever the consequences. In retrospect I think that might have been when our marriage really began to die."

As Jane paused to take a final refreshing swig of her wine Harry asked as gently he could, "But Graham..what he said...that was much later wasn't it?" 'So where does the teenage temptress come in?'

"I said it began to die, not that rigour mortis had set in. Robin was away quite a lot, with increased contacts and inspections. Then I landed my current part time post and gradually began to move into publishing, the odd bit of lecturing and advising, a little ironical I know considering my earlier attitude but I do insist on return visits and progress checks. That meant I was often away as well. We were therefore avoiding one another quite satisfactorily. Having begun to be a little more high profile I wasn't quite the liability Robin had anticipated. In fact he was quite keen to parade me around but although we never mentioned it I couldn't forget that when push came to shove he'd have seen me professional neutered. I decided though, forgive me for saying this Harry; that I'd been in a difficult marriage before and I could cope, that perhaps eventually we'd rediscover what we'd had, so I endured the local get togethers, did my odd bit of charming on the few formal occasions we had to attend as a couple. Basically though we were living together but rarely together in any other way. I'm sure several marriages survive on those terms."

Harry could see the logic but he persisted. For once Graham's anger would seem to have been fully justifed, even if the same could not be said for the methods by which he'd expressed it. "So Graham's accusation?"

Looking at the clock Jane noted it was approaching eleven so she understood Harry's need to move on. "Getting there." By her face she'd obviously reached the most difficult part of her story. "About eighteen months ago or so Graham happened to see Robin in London, with another woman. Quite where I've never known. According to Graham he had his arms around her and was fumbling her in a very unplatonic way. Robin didn't notice him so Graham followed and saw them checking into a cheap hotel. I don't know how he did it but he managed to discover the hotel room and tracked them to the door. He listened at the keyhole and ... well do I need to..."

"No we'll take what he overheard as said. I'll spare you the next bit, Graham contacted you, you refused to believe him and then he threw a tantrum and cut off contact as an injured innocent."

"More or less; except I began to wonder. I'd fielded a couple of phone calls over the previous two months from Robin's office personnel under the impression that he was working from home. The more I thought about it a few things didn't quite add up so..."

"You needed proof." 'And if she caught me out you stood no chance Robin, but how?'

She nodded at that. "I thought emails would be good place to start, Robin, I knew keeps all his passwords on a spreadsheet, he once boasted about it.

'Is there anything he doesn't boast about?'

"So I waited until he was in his study, pretended I was going to take a bath and rang the landline from the bathroom, on caller blocked obviously. While he went downstairs I flushed the toilet to disguise any noise, popped into the study, noted down the passwords and dived back into the bathroom."

As she said this Harry was gazing at her with an expression in which admiration and amusement co-mingled, a direct contrast to the shamefaced expression that was residing on Jane's face. Her next statement explained her lack of pride. "No Harry I'm not proud of myself. I hate spying and being spied upon. You of all people should know that, considering why I finally gave up on our marriage."

Ignoring the last reference to events that still seared him Harry remarked, "Pity, I was beginning to think Erin might have been right when she wondered if you'd been recruited without my knowing." Before Jane could reply he asked, "I presume your espionage bore some fruit?"

"I found some emails. I don't know the girl's name, she signed with a pseudonym. For that matter she gave Robin one as well, at least I assume he was the Snuggle Bunny of the salutation."

Balefully eyeing a choking Harry, who'd suddenly been assailed by a vision of Robin sporting floppy ears and a cotton wool tail, she paused for a moment. Harry, having managed to straighten his face, was idly wondering what the girl had called herself. A curiosity that was quickly satisfied. "She referred to herself as Smoochie Babe and no, I didn't say anything to him, I hoped the affair would pass over. As she was very young I thought she'd get bored with being a side show, I couldn't see what she was getting out of it." At Harry's raised eyebrow she added, "Well apart from the obvious."

Although the reasons for Jane's reluctance to discuss her marriage were becoming clearer to Harry they were being displaced by an even more opaque puzzle. While he fully appreciated now, even if he hadn't when she'd finally left him, that Jane had remained in their marriage despite its being well past the sell by date, they had had two children to consider. Even with that link to bind them she had eventually walked away, so why on earth, after that discovery, had she stayed in an arid second marriage from which she was getting nothing whatsoever, other than endless grief from Snuggle Bunny. There was only one way to find out.

"Jane I do understand why you'd decided to make the best of a bad job until you found that evidence. But ...well ..." His words petered out but he'd said enough. Jane slumped back against the sofa in a posture of defeat as she replied.

"Why after everything else didn't I walk? A couple of weeks previously my sister had been diagnosed with breast cancer. I simply didn't think I could deal with Robin's shenanigans, work and be around for her. Not if I wanted to avoid going back onto the anti depressants and I was desperate to avoid that scenario. Graham did get in touch again but just wouldn't understand why I was turning a blind eye. While I concentrated on helping Rebecca I was working on the assumption that if the affair continued Robin would leave me. At least that way I'd be spared the strain of making the decision. I hated myself for being so passive but..."

From her face she was apparently expecting a wholesale condemnation from him. It would be easy to give it, but Harry remembered the sheer devastation he'd felt when, shortly after their divorce, his father and brother had died in quick succession. It had been a torrid two years, with no one and nothing to live for he'd sought continual solace in draining the whisky bottle. It was mainly thanks to the careful handling of Clive McTaggert, the then head of Section D that he'd finally crawled out of that raw, angry, near suicidal depression and thrown himself into work. Unbidden it struck him that the events of a few months ago had created a reprise of near matching intensity, read Malcolm for Clive and Ruth for...no the cases weren't the same, he'd been angry with Jane, his sibling, his father for leaving him, how could he ever be angry at Ruth...she'd saved his life...and left him to mourn... and ...and this wasn't about him, it was about Jane and after what that total shit had put her through; correction was putting her through, she was in desperate need of some positive affirmation.

Emotional support was not his long suit, as he'd once told a very different woman he had distinct limitations in that department, but seeing Jane so troubled he had to make a stab at comforting her, however inadequate. Depositing his now empty wineglass on the coffee table he leaned forward and grasped her unresisting hands. "To quote one of your favourite authors, 'when sorrows come they come not single spies but in battalions.' Jane whatever else you may be you are not weak. Only you knew the circumstances and how much you could take before cracking up. You made a pragmatic decision that you could always deal with Robin later but that your sister had to be your priority given how debilitating cancer treatment can be."

Pep talk over, he released her hands, sank back in his chair and took refuge in the pragmatic. "How is she holding up?" He couldn't stand his ex-sister in law, who wholeheartedly returned the loathing, but at least she'd always been supportive of Jane and their children. Also, she had had Jane's interests at heart which made her marginally more tolerable than Robin. What did Rebecca know about Jane's current trials – probably nothing?

Well versed in Harry's feelings about her sister Jane was gratefully surprised by the olive branch, "She's more or less in the clear now. Thankfully it was caught at an early stage. When she got the latest results a few weeks ago I decided I had to tackle the Robin problem. He'd been no help during Rebecca's illness. Plus just as she got the modified all clear I was checking his trouser pockets prior to sending some of his clothes to the dry cleaners. I found a receipt for a week long stay in a very expensive hotel in the Lake District. A week when, according to his desk diary, he was attending a conference in London."

"Are you sure about that Jane, sometimes venues are changed and he might have had to claim back on expenses." Why was he defending Robin? The answer snapped into his mind, he needed to know that Jane was sure of her facts.

"That did occur to me. I hadn't been checking his emails, he's fanatical about changing passwords every so often. The number of times I could pull the bathroom trick was limited and ignorance, if not exactly bliss, was the easier option. Anyway I managed to get his latest code, this time by waiting until he'd logged on and then shouting that we had intruders at the back of the garden. The next time he was out networking I sneaked a look. Smoochie Babe had obviously insisted that they go upmarket as she had sent an email not only thanking Snuggle Bunny for a lovely week, she'd actually sent him a video from her phone as a memento." Her face was rigid with distaste. "Do I need to go into the details? Seeing their cavorting was bad enough."

He respected her feelings. The prospect of watching the obnoxious Robin in the buff enjoying coitus was summoning up images that Harry really didn't want buzzing around his brain. "I know, whenever I've been forced to do that type of surveillance I've found myself agreeing with Lord Chesterfield." As Jane glanced up he launched into the second quote of the evening. "The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous and the expense damnable."

"Huh. Pity you hadn't considered that when we were married."

"The cost isn't always monetary Jane." A hard won truth, Juliet and various anonymous incidents had cost him Jane; Elena had ultimately cost him Ruth. Before he could descend back into his now customary pit of despair his attention was arrested by Jane's next statement.

"Anyway it wasn't just the position; it was the outfits that got to me." Since for a moment Harry wasn't sure he believed his ears he could easily comprehend Jane's stunned reaction. "He was dressed as a schoolboy while she pranced around wearing an academic gown and black underwear giving him the odd thwack with a cane." Unthinkingly Harry blurted out, "Why pupils and teachers? I'd have thought that was a bit close to home, now tarts and vicars might have been more like it. Er I hate to sound prurient but did..." Jane's face was enough to halt him. "Sorry I know it's not funny but ..."

Jane's glare softened slightly as she sighed, "I suppose in your shoes I'd feel the same. And in answer to the question you pulled back from, no I had no idea at all. That side of our life had declined considerably, which I'd put down to estrangement and time, I mean women can fake, but as they age men do tend to..." Jane wanted to be tactful, she'd suddenly remembered that Harry was nearing sixty. Was that the problem with the mystery relationship? "...have difficulties...er...rising to the occasion...well I don't need to spell it out do I? I assume that was his way of getting stimulated." Having told Harry this much she bit her lip in embarrassment as she faltered, "And... God this is mortifying... but I think Smoochie Babe may have been faking. Let's just say that I know from experience that Robin can't tell...and during the last two years...he'd moan that I was frigid...well it was easier to pretend and get it over with. "

Harry felt a wholly inappropriate sense of triumph which he subdued in an attempt to reassure Jane. "From the privileged position – 'oops' ... sorry no pun intended, of being your ex I'd be inclined to lay the blame for that at Robin's door." His sentence completed, an unpleasant misgiving shoot through his mind. Had she conned him as well as Robin? He dismissed the possibility. Circumstances may have converted him into one of life's non sexual combatants, but since it seemed improbable that every single woman or, for that matter every married one, he'd ever bedded had graduated from RADA Robin was the one with the problem, and, judging by Jane's anecdotal evidence, a limited skill set.

Jane didn't demur as she reached the penultimate part of her narrative. "I was still reeling from this one when Robin arrived home, possibly envigorated by a refreshing session of whipping to announce that we were going to hold a drinks party for his friends and contacts whether I liked it or not as he'd was fed up with my unsupportive attitude. That's when I told him I'd had enough and wanted to separate. Then he uttered the blackmail threat you heard, with the rider that my ex-Head would be happy to endorse a version that stated I'd been propositioning the teenager who attacked me."

Harry Pearce prided himself on being unshockable, but this final extended revelation of Robin's threat brought forth a roar that made the wine glasses rattle. "What...but Jane the incident was three years ago, you told me that, so how could they make it stick?"

Jane replied sharply, "They probably couldn't. But Harry, you've almost certainly destroyed reputations with less. It's not true, but even the suggestion would finish me professionally. No school could employ me. Guilty until proven innocent and while it was self defence I did assault the thug." Seeing Harry's dawning awareness that the risk was genuine she added with some asperity, "No responsible Head would take that chance. In the prevailing climate anyone who works which children is constantly under suspicion. Yes Harry even if you're female -although why any mature women would want to risk her job by seducing a spotty teenage male who's almost certainly acquired some very strange ideas about sex courtesy of Internet porn I don't know."

Harry was crimson with fury. He understood the bloody problem, the only glimmer of pleasure he could take was purely personal. If Robin got his kicks from being scourged then Harry could see his way clear to providing him with several hours of compulsory fun, although they'd have to dispense with a suitably accoutred female presence. Harry made it a rule to do his own dirty work and the one occasion he'd gone undercover in a drag club had been enough. Not even for the mouth watering opportunity of revenge on Snuggle Bunny was he going to relive being draped in an outfit that had proved to be extremely draughty, courtesy of the skirt, stocking and suspender combo he'd been forced to wear. Nor did he think he could mete out appropriate justice to Robin while wobbling on pair of crippling stilettos and most certainly he was never ever again going plaster his face with enough slap to make a belisha beacon seem modest. He'd plan their mutual, but frockless, gratification session later. For the moment though he needed Jane to complete her tale.

"What did you say to him?" 'Myself I'm aiming for deeds not words'

"I was shocked so I decided to look as if I was complying. Robin had to go away again, possibly for more role play with Smoochie Babe, but he thought I'd come into line. The nearer the drinks party approached the more I knew that I simply couldn't face an evening of everyone telling me what a wonderful man Robin was, and I certainly didn't want total strangers looking at my taste in books and other items. In the end I put them into a secure lock up, organised an outside caterer, on Robin's credit card of course, and headed to Catherine's."

Finally finished she stared down at her feet as she said in a chastened voice. "I'm wondering why I was such a fool to fall for him – why didn't I see him for what he is."

A few months previously Harry would have agreed with her but that was before he'd discovered that he'd been deceived for years by Elena. Had his judgement been any better? The answer to that degrading question made him stamp down any temptation to either gloat or pity. Neither reaction would be of the slightest practical use and would only add to Jane's sense of humiliation. Instead he gave a considered reply.

"Well you've come to your senses finally, which is all that matters to me. Now, as you've crossed your own personal Rubicon what exactly did you mean by causing trouble for Robin?"

"Ah I took a copy of Smoochie Babe's video. It's on a memory stick in the lock up. I thought I could promise to put it on the Internet, take him down with me if he carries out his threat. He won't risk it."

Harry, while impressed with her inventiveness shuddered inwardly at the possible consequences. "Before you do anything that could be construed as criminal I'd prefer it if you left it to me to try and sort things out for you." He added with a slight grin, "Despite your late flowering talent at skulduggery I'm still much better at it than you."

Jane, relieved to have finished, and thankful for his restraint in not crowing, gave him a sardonic twinkle in return. "It must be a legacy from living with you for all those years."

That was more like the Jane he remembered and preferred.

"Nice to know I had my uses. Even so I'd never have dared suggest that you whipped me. I know how thorough you are." Before she could reply he continued, "Assuming that you are finally minded to dump that wart I'd suggest we arrange it as quickly as possible."

Jane, picking up on the 'we' opened her mouth to protest. "But Harry..."

"No buts. I've told you why I want to help and now we reach the crucial question. In view what you've said about infidelity corroding trust and our...sorry... my past behaviour, will you trust me to pull you out of the marital swamp?"

If anyone would like me to write in a confrontation between Harry and Robin please let me know. It wasn't originally planned so I need to make some minor alterations to future chapters and the timeline.

Thanks for reading and please review if you have a moment.