Jackie parked her car on a verge at the bottom of the drive behind the back of the château, and stepped out. There was a dense stand of trees between the edge of the château grounds and where she stood now, completely masking the building that was being erected here. Jackie had watched with fascination as it appeared over the last few days; she had read about houses like this in magazines, but had never actually seen one before.

The house was small, modern and unremarkable in every detail except one. This house had arrived pre-built in two halves, and had then been locked together until it was an entirely finished structure. Jackie was one of the few people who knew about it, since she had opened her curtains at three a.m. a couple of nights earlier and seen it arrive very discreetly on a trailer.

She looked at her watch. It was after midday, so any workmen would have stopped for their obligatory lunch and the coast should be clear. She peered in the window and had to marvel. There were four bedrooms, a large lounge, a galley kitchen with space for a kitchen table – even a fireplace with tasteful marble surround. There were russet tiles with a slightly Mediterranean look where the roof met the walls, and a front door with a small porch. The whole thing was like a toy house, only life-size.

No one British, who flocked here in their thousands to buy ruined manoirs and abandoned farmhouses, would ever understand that a lot of French people yearned for easy-care modern dwellings with absolutely no maintenance. After a lifetime of leaking roofs, no matter how historic, blocked pipes and damp plasterwork, they longed to simply turn their backs on history and embrace the contemporary. She also knew, since Guillaume’s sister worked in the doctor’s surgery, that the duke was actually quite ill and would soon need a carer, and the duchess had no intention of taking on this role.

Jackie peered inside and was just wondering if she dared try opening the door, when a voice made her jump.

‘C’est formidable, eh, madame?’ demanded a jovial man in blue overalls who looked like the gardener. ‘Two days and she is built. Pouf! And let me show you the real magic. Come. Entrez!’ He opened the front door as proudly as if it were his own home. ‘It is the future, madame! For you and I when we get older!’

Jackie tried not to laugh. Next minute he would be carrying her over the threshold.