Serena Fitzmaurice meets Andrew Jarvis at a Mayfair hotel bar before a charity gala at the Victoria and Albert Museum, where her husband, Ben, the Energy Secretary, is scheduled to speak. Their affair began at Fliss’s funeral wake at Denby Hall days earlier, when Jarvis found Serena in the rose garden, and they slipped away to a guest bedroom.

Serena recalls the stress of that day: her eldest daughter, Cosima, arrived late and refused to confide in her; Ben was distant; and her mother-in-law, Lady Katherine Fitzmaurice, was critical. The wake’s highlight was seeing a much-improved Martin Gilmour.

At the hotel, Jarvis leads her to a room. Holding her down, he has forceful, painful sex with her. She tries to protest, but her voice is smothered by the pillow. Reminding herself that she initiated the affair, Serena waits for the rape to be over. Afterward, Jarvis kisses her hand tenderly. Shaken, Serena showers, reapplies her makeup, and finds several urgent missed texts from Ben.

At the V&A gala, during Ben’s speech, he unexpectedly announces that his friend, Prime Minister Edward Buller, is stepping down and that he will stand for the Conservative Party leadership, with