She was more friendly than he would have expected. Excitable almost. He put it down to nerves. Kate had always been highly strung, and this would be her chosen way of peace making, though it had been long enough coming. She looked thinner. Somehow more grown-up, which struck him as being an odd thought to have in your head about a fifty-year-old woman.

‘So how have you been?’ she asked, while he busied himself making coffee.

Where did he begin? How could you explain ‘how you had been’ eighteen months after someone had left you? He thought it best to regard it as a rhetorical question and shrugged.

‘I meant to call more. To check on how things were but…well…it never seemed to be the right time.’ Kate sat down at the kitchen table and undid the gold buttons on her coat to reveal a smart black polo-neck dress and a single strand of pearls.

‘No,’ said Christopher softly. And then, ‘How is…er…Howie?’ He tried not to fall over the words; to ask the question in as level a tone as he could manage.

‘Fine. In Barcelona at the moment. Clinching some deal or other.’

Kate looked around the kitchen, at the familiar furniture, the plates on the wall, the vase of daffodils by the sink. It was hard to bear. She seemed to be looking at an album of her life, from inside the pictures. ‘Gosh!’ was all she could manage for a few moments.

Christopher did his best to keep the conversation going. To make it easier for her. ‘So how long are you here for?’

‘Oh, just a few days. Not long. I go back the day after tomorrow.’

‘I see.’

‘But I don’t have to.’

Christopher was not quite sure what she meant. ‘I’m sorry?’

‘I don’t have to go back tomorrow. I could stay.’

He still did not grasp her meaning. Thought that she must mean she could extend her stay to see friends or something.

He put a cup of coffee in front of her and sat down opposite. ‘You know about Tiger?’ he asked.

‘Yes. Dreadful. But at least he’s pulling through. I’ve been speaking to Erica. The girls are with him now as well.’

It surprised him that she had been in touch with their friends. Hurt him a little that she had wanted to talk to them, but not to him. He continued, ‘They should be able to bring him home soon. Well, back to Hampshire anyway. Start getting him back to normal. I think they’re hopeful of a complete recovery.’

‘Yes.’

He sipped his coffee.

‘I meant…I mean…’ Kate hesitated. ‘I could come back here. Come back to you.’

At first he was not sure he had heard correctly. The words reverberated in his head, then he lowered his cup and set it carefully on the saucer. ‘I see.’