Most of those who didn’t turn away were still too embarrassed to acknowledge it… but Tudor had asked about the scar straight away. His forthright manner had taken me aback, but he had a way of putting you at ease. The first time we slept together he drew his fingers gently over it, ‘kissed it better’ and ran his tongue along its length. Even then, all those years ago, Tudor seemed to know about human fragility and understood that broken people needed a little extra gentleness. After we’d moved in together ‘kissing it better’ became a bit of a goodnight ritual.

‘This is Max,’ Glain said, interrupting Cai’s imaginary ramble in the mountains. ‘He’s staying at Villa Cannero too.’

‘Hello,’ Max said with enthusiasm.

‘Hi,’ Cai said, turning towards them. He offered the man in the white linen jacket the broadest smile and began to think that perhaps Max might be his saviour. What had ever possessed him to come away with Glain?

Max flinched. He was unable to disguise the wince that momentarily twisted his photogenic features. He averted his gaze, focussed on the small Celtic cross that Cai wore on a chain around his neck, and said the first thing that came into his head: ‘Glain was just telling me how much she’s looking forward to making a trip down to the Borromeo islands and maybe spending a morning at the market in Cannobio.’

Sensing Max’s embarrassment, Cai put his arm through Glain’s and teased her: ‘You were reading the guide book all the way over on the flight… weren’t you Mam?’

‘Don’t be so damn cheeky Cai,’ Glain said with a laugh in her voice. ‘I married your father but I was never your Mam. He’s only eight years younger than me see, Max… I was married to a much older man.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Max said, laughing, ‘I’d just assumed that you were a couple.’ Cai sensed too that he was sorry for the way he’d flinched.

‘Well, ‘ Glain said, ‘we’re on a ‘singles’ holiday… but it’s so horrible to sit and eat on your own – or have to share a table with strangers who’ve never seen a fish knife in their lives. We decided to come away together, but to do our own thing and still have one another’s company at meal times.’

‘I know exactly what you mean,’ Max confided. ‘This is my first holiday on my own… since the divorce.’

‘And are you planning to do all those touristy things then, Max… the islands and the Villa Taranto?’ Cai quizzed, seeing a plan come together.

‘Isn’t that why people come to Lago Maggiore?’ Max asked with a shrug.

‘So maybe, when I go off hiking,’ Cai ventured, ‘you two might keep one another company?’