“I’m afraid so.” Jackie smiled. “It’s not really a big deal, though. I was half expecting something like this to happen, so I put a provisional booking on six other models from the agency.”

Stephen breathed out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness for that. Well done, you.” He pulled his chair forward and leaned his elbows on Jackie’s desk. As he did so, one of his gold cufflinks momentarily caught the sunlight through the full-length window and flashed a brilliant pinpoint of light across Jackie’s cleavage. “Listen,” he said, moving his hand imperceptibly so that the oval reflection played upon the deep split between her breasts, “are you going over to Paris before the show?”

“I had planned to. I don’t think that one can tell the organizers too many times how grateful we are to be given a slot.”

“Right. I’ll come with you.”

Jackie shook her head. “There’s no reason for you to come.”

“Oh, but I think I should. Two heads are always better than one, especially if there’s a problem to negotiate. Anyway, my workload’s pretty clear right up until the Tokyo trip.”

Jackie contemplated his offer for a moment, then reached across the desk for her diary. Stephen immediately dropped his hands to his lap in case she caught the positioning of the reflected light from his cufflink. She opened the diary and flipped through the pages. “All right then. What about Saturday?”

“This Saturday?”

“I can’t do next week. I have meetings every day.”

“I don’t think that’ll be much use then.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if we hit a problem, we’re not going to get it sorted out on a Sunday. What meetings do you have on Monday?”

Jackie glanced back at her diary. “One in the morning, one in the afternoon.”

“Are they important or could you put them off to another day?”

Jackie picked up her pen and began to turn it over in her fingers. “You really think it’s necessary?”

“As an insurance, yes, I do.”

She nodded. “Okay then. I’ll get Laurie to change them.”

Stephen pushed himself to his feet. “Right. I’ll get straight onto Eurostar and book the tickets.”

Jackie made no further comment about their arrangement, but swiveled around in her chair and stared out at the panoramic view of the River Thames and the uneven skyline of Wandsworth beyond. Sensing her deep distraction, Stephen stopped halfway to the door and then turned and walked over to the window, arriving in time to see a coxless four glide their boat upriver towards Putney.

“You’re really not your usual dynamic self this morning, are you?”

“No, not really,” she replied quietly.

He turned and sat on the windowsill. “Do you want to talk about it?”