‘Ash, this is Bridge Mazur,’ Carly introduced them, still livid with him taking a risk like that.

She heard him laugh. ‘You’re Mazur-ati?’

‘I love it!’ Bridge whooped. ‘Can I use that?’

‘You work out at my gym.’

‘Do I?’

‘Does she?’ Carly looked up at him over her shoulder, accustomed to her husband noticing nothing and nobody around him, especially when he was on the machines.

‘Silver and pink hair, it’s like neon,’ Bridge told her cheerfully, ‘and stops anyone noticing how lazy you are.’ She cocked an eyebrow at Ash.

‘I’ve seen you round the village too.’

‘That’s me. How’re youse doing?’

‘Bridge, you say?’

‘You can burn me or cross me, it’s all water under me.’

He laughed again. ‘That’s good.’

For Ash, usually about as chatty as a rock, this was impressively engaged. Carly’s anger allayed somewhat, grateful to her extrovert new friend. ‘Bridge was just saying she might be going to work Ellis’s school.’

‘If they give me the job.’

‘They’d be mad not to.’ His wolf eyes glinted, pale and amused. ‘Place needs livening up. Get old Mrs Bullock shipshape.’

‘Too right I fecking will.’ She waved her cigarette and tossed her pink-tipped ponytail, looking far from school secretary material. ‘Like your wife will at the stud, eh, Ash?’

‘What’s this?’ Ash looked bemused.

‘Sure, Carly needs to get her arse over there and take up Ronnie Percy’s offer.’

Hearing him sucking his lips, Carly shot Bridge a warning look, but she was looking at Ash, false lashes flapping. ‘Don’t imagine the Percys offer many the chance to train there. Fecking golden opportunity, I say. That’s one classy outfit going on there. Be a total travesty for Carly here not to take them up on it, don’t you agree, Ash?’ She stepped back, arms outstretched as she struck an assertive pose. With her high ponytail and catsuit, she looked more like a sweetly slewed circus acrobat than a motivational speaker.

Carly braced herself for Ash shutting the line of conversation down. But to her surprise, he laughed again, eyes laser hard in return. ‘Yeah, classy outfit.’

Bridge grinned, turning to Carly. ‘Told you the magic was working.’

*

By the time Pax had pitched out of the lift doors onto her floor and navigated the maze of hotel corridors, she’d lost the power of speech and had just the tiniest aperture of tunnel vision left. Like Eurydice returning from the Underworld, she followed the figure that was leading the way. All she cared about was making it into her room to safety. Cannoning off walls, she tried to hold on to what scrap of dignity remained, repeatedly saying, ‘Thank you’ but it came out ‘Phoo’.

A hand held up the key card to a door reader – was it her door? Her hand? She seemed to have lost sense of where any of her limbs were and what they were doing. Suddenly she was very close to the brightly patterned carpet.

She realised she was lying down. She must have passed out. Wet tongue on her face. Seductive, soothing voice. Was he trying to seduce her?