‘You’re surely not expecting me to—’

‘I’m not expecting anything, Kate. I deserve everything that’s coming to me.’

Tears crept from the corners of Kate’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them abruptly away. ‘My love . . .’ Stuart stepped forward. Kate raised her hand and took a pace back. ‘You know I’d do anything for a shot at redemption, right?’

‘That’s never going to happen, Stuart, and I’ll stop bringing the children to see you if you go down that road.’ She was surprised at how definitive that sounded.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said again.

The pain in him cut her like a knife. ‘I need to go,’ she said. ‘I’ll be in touch about how you see the children.’ She turned away.

‘Why did you come, love?’ he asked.

She faced him. ‘What do you mean?’

‘You could have sent the children up here on their own or with Julie. So why did you come?’

‘I . . . I don’t know.’

‘Did you want to see my pain, to see if it looked anything like yours?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘Well, if you hoped to see a ruined man, I trust you weren’t disappointed.’

‘This is perhaps going to come across more harshly than I really mean it to – since I’m still too confused to know what I think about anything – but I would say that it’s that kind of self-absorption and, indeed, self-pity that got you into this mess in the first place.’

She turned away and walked out. Julie and the children were waiting just outside the entrance. ‘He looks well,’ Kate said to Fiona and Gus. ‘You go on up.’

Kate watched them disappear inside. Despite herself, the tears began to roll down her cheeks again. Without a word, Julie linked arms and led her friend slowly back towards St Mark’s Square. They walked past the Doge’s Palace and sat by the water’s edge. Julie waited while Kate composed herself. ‘So,’ she said eventually. ‘How was he?’

‘Let’s not talk about it.’

It was a glorious spring day now, the lagoon busy with the morning traffic. They watched a glistening white cruise liner heave into view. It seemed vast, a giant from another world entering a Toytown harbour. ‘You want me to fetch you an ice cream?’ Julie asked.

‘Getting even fatter is the last thing I need.’

‘Somehow that seems to be the least of your worries.’

‘Perhaps you could explain one day how you eat so much and stay so trim.’

‘I don’t think about it.’

‘That can’t be true.’

‘It is.’ Julie was watching a shifty-looking man standing by the waterfront. He was theoretically selling leather bracelets. ‘Perhaps we should just lie in the sun and smoke something medicinal.’

Given their employer’s strictures in relation to illegal drugs – and the questions on the subject in routine positive vetting – there were many things Kate could have said to this, but she’d decided long ago that Julie’s weekend penchant for dope and possibly more had better remain off-limits. She was the most loyal friend and colleague you could wish for. ‘Could you at least pretend that you understand the rules of our employment?’