Friday evening seemed to come around swiftly. Holly, who’d been mercifully busy enough in ComIncense all day to put her date with Charlie mostly to the back of her mind, opened the door of her flat and smiled when he arrived. Charlie, who’d obviously come more or less straight from work having spent a rare Friday in Westminster rather than in Willowbury, was still in his suit. His tie was a little askew, but he’d clearly not wasted any time in getting to her, as she’d told him to. He’d swapped his bag for a bottle of Sancerre, which still had the mist of condensation from whichever fridge he’d removed it from, his own or that of the off-licence on the High Street. She could even smell a tantalising scent of the last of his aftershave mixed with that enticing smell of London: slightly smoky, a little bit stressed and sublimely sexy.

‘Hi,’ she said softly. She was tickled to see him hesitating on the doorstep – perhaps still a little embarrassed by the mouse-up-the-trouser-leg incident, which was the last time he’d crossed the threshold. ‘Come on in.’

‘There aren’t any loose mice around are there?’ he asked, as if he’d read her mind.

Holly laughed. ‘Not as far as I’m aware, but Arthur’s not come back from his evening constitutional yet, so you can always tuck your trousers into your socks if you want to!’

Charlie laughed too. ‘That would be a great look, wouldn’t it?’

Despite his apparent rodent-related reservations, Charlie needed no further invitation and stepped into the flat, blinking a little at the dim lighting.

Holly had lit a candle in the hall, which rested in a glass bowl on the narrow console table under the mirror, and as they wandered back through to the living area off the hall, which incorporated Holly’s kitchen and lounge space, more candles could be seen burning around the edges of the room. Some of them were on the worktops and sideboard, but, and Charlie seemed a little unnerved by this, some were just lit at random and placed carefully on the floor.

‘Don’t you worry about Arthur singeing his tail with all these naked flames around? Or knocking one over and setting fire to the place?’

‘He’s not particularly interested in them, to be honest,’ Holly said as Charlie passed the bottle of wine to her. Wandering over to the kitchen area, she swiftly found the corkscrew and poured them both a chilled glass. ‘Thanks for this. Just what I need on a Friday evening after a busy week.’

‘Ley lines giving you grief?’ Charlie teased. ‘Chakras not aligning properly?’