I pushed it open and stopped in the doorway. The room was huge and made entirely of green marble. In the middle was a large cast-iron bath, and sitting in the bath was Edie. She held a bar of soap in one hand, and a cocktail glass in the other. Steam was rising from the water, but I could clearly see she was naked.

‘Theo,’ she said. ‘So glad you could come. Can you hold my cocktail for me while I work this into a lather?’

I felt my pulse thrum. I stepped forwards and took the glass, my eyes fixed above her head.

‘How boring,’ she said. ‘You’ve grown – another one to tower over me.’

‘Sorry,’ I said automatically.

‘Nice and firm, though. Scots are always solid. Have a sip if you like. Freddie makes them – they’re guaranteed to get you tight.’

I took a sip and had to stop myself from coughing all over the bath.

Edie was soaping herself. I caught a glimpse of long, dark nipples and, some way below them, a thick triangle of jet-black, curly hair. The hair was out of place on her body, which was otherwise neat and milk-white, and I couldn’t help staring at it. The only other woman I’d seen naked was my mother, when I was young and I’d run into her bedroom after a nightmare. The memory of her on all fours on her bed, my father behind her, surfaced hazily and I closed my mind to it. I didn’t want to think of her, but I remembered that her body had been different to Edie’s; I wondered how different Sylvie’s would be too and felt the stirrings of something better enjoyed in private.

‘We have a log fire just outside the bathroom,’ Edie said. ‘It heats the drums that store the water. Another of Freddie’s inventions. He’s so clever, my husband.’

The drink seemed to be working on me, because I was able to meet her eye now, even pretend that this was normal. ‘Yes.’

‘And how are you? I haven’t seen you for ages.’

There was a burst of noise behind me, and twenty or so guests trooped into the room. They all came forwards to kiss Edie on the cheek and Sylvie leaned over to put her arms around Edie’s neck and hug her, their breasts touching through Sylvie’s silk dress.

‘I’ve missed you, darling,’ Edie said, kissing Sylvie’s nose. ‘You must come around more often.’

‘I will,’ Sylvie said.

Everyone was talking and laughing. Edie drank more of the cocktail that I handed back to her; I moved to the back of the crowd and found Nicolas. He grinned at me.

‘We should have warned you, I suppose,’ he said. ‘Here – I brought you a glass of champagne. I’m afraid tonight will only get more scandaleux.’