Tom King (James Chase) is absolutely fuming in a new Emmerdale spoiler video, as he eavesdrops on a conversation that Belle Dingle (Eden Taylor-Draper) is having with Mandy (Lisa Riley) and Lydia (Karen Blick) at home.
As Tom sits at the vet’s secretly looking and listening to what the women think is a private conversation, Belle is talking about trying for a baby.
It’s clear that Mandy has previously expressed her concern about this, and Belle assures her that she’s spoken to her mental health team and they’ve told her that if she wants to have a baby there’s no reason she can’t.
Mandy justifies her earlier comments by saying she was just thinking about Belle – and of course viewers know that Belle had huge reservations about having a baby at this time in her life too.
In fact Belle had been trying to secretly keep taking the pill to stop it from happening, but Tom found the pills during the dramatic dinner party.
His angry reaction, which ended with him holding Belle’s hand under scalding running water, has led to Belle giving in and agreeing that they should try for a baby.
Tom is trying to control every area of Belle’s life – her money, who she sees, where she goes. Coercing her into having a baby is another, very disturbing, way of exerting control, however much he tries to wrap it up in wanting to have a family of his own.
Viewers will be willing Mandy and Lydia to see that all isn’t well with Belle, but as usual she’s masking her own concerns in the video and the others are soon agreeing that there would be nothing nicer than a little baby to cuddle.
The talk ranges on to Belle having the potential to be a fantastic mum – ‘because you had Lisa (Jane Cox) as your teacher,’ Mandy says, and the mention of Belle’s late mum makes her smile.
Then Mandy says that, with Tom, Belle will have to make sure that he knows he’s changing a nappy and ‘not wrangling a piglet.’ Then she suggests that Tom might smell of ‘eau de cow dung. It’s the joys of living with a vet!’
This is all friendly banter and there’s no malice at all in Mandy’s words – her beloved Paddy Kirk (Dominic Brunt) is, after all, a vet himself. But watching this unfold on the puppy cam, Tom is absolutely seething.
As he watches Lydia talking about Sam’s (James Hooton) own drawbacks when he brings game birds in the house dripping blood on her carpet, you can see the rage building up inside Tom – and it won’t be long before he’s heading back home to make his anger felt.
Is this the moment that Lydia and Mandy will finally see Tom’s true colours?
