‘Did he tell you?’ Cat probes.

‘Ben York?’ Luca exclaims. ‘Bastard didn’t have to. You know why?’

Cat shakes her head.

‘Usually, if I joke about women – you know my style – yeah, she’s a fit chicky, or maybe I say yo! tasty honey-babe,’ Luca says, all excited, suddenly finding a hearty gossip most reviving, ‘well, that boy Ben would normally join in, pass comment – you know?’ Cat nods. ‘Whenever I talked about you,’ Luca says, raising a finger to emphasize significance, ‘if I talked about Gatto, or the Babe, you know what?’

Cat realizes she has to say, ‘No – what?’ for Luca to continue.

‘I’ll tell you,’ Luca says, ‘Ben doesn’t say a fucking thing. So then I knew. I had fun.’

Luca releases her hand from his, Cat stands and pulls Luca to his feet.

‘I have to go,’ Cat says.

‘Gatto!’ he calls after her. Cat turns. ‘I can still call you the Babe McCabe, right?’

‘I don’t think I could answer to anything else,’ Cat assures him.

Cat returned to her hotel which, though clean and bright, smelt of mothballs and the type of disinfectant used liberally in schools when someone’s thrown up. A note had been slipped under her door from Josh, informing her that they were in a bar around the corner. Her chat with Luca, talking in the open about Ben, had infused her with extreme happiness, the likes of which she had not felt for some too long time. She floated off to find the bar and, from a way off, saw that joining Alex and Josh were Ben and two women she thought she knew. From a distance, out of context, far from home, on the Tour de Bloody France, there was no way she was going to recognize them instantly as her sisters. As she neared, she squinted, then she grinned, then squinted again and tried to grin at the same time but it was not possible.

‘Fen?’ she shrieked. ‘Pip? Josh! Ben! Alex!’

‘Cat!’ Pip squeaked.

‘Pip!’ Cat declared. ‘Josh? Alex! Ben? Fen!’

‘Cat!’ Fen cried.

‘Fen!’ Cat responded. ‘Pip!’

The sisters stood and bounced and hugged and repeated each other’s names ad nauseam until Alex said for fuck’s sake, settle down and have a drink.

‘You look shattered,’ Pip told her sister, ‘you need a haircut and your clothes are all crumpled.’

‘If I’d known you were coming, I’d have asked you to bring knickers and hair conditioner,’ Cat assured her.

‘You look thin too,’ Fen said sternly.

‘I’ve put on about half a stone,’ Alex bemoaned.

‘Fuck that. Do you know what I’m thinking?’ Josh said, looking at Alex. ‘I am thinking that it’s been a long time since Bordeaux.’ Alex regarded him and then punched the air, hissing, ‘Yes!’ under his breath.

‘What would you kill for?’ Josh asked Cat, shaking his head when she said she’d kill for a ride in the Système Vipère team car.

‘Try closing your eyes,’ Alex said, noting how his command was obeyed by all three sisters, ‘now recall how much frigging baguette, stinky cheese and jambon you’ve had or spurned day after day.’ He was amused how Pip and Fen could nod and frown so sincerely alongside Cat. ‘Now tell me what you’d kill for.’