But by the time everyone had finished eating she felt too tired to carry on with the party. There would be other evenings, she told herself. She’d been working hard and it had been a long day.

‘I think I’ll just go to bed,’ she told everyone, feeling sheepish and a party pooper. ‘I seem terribly tired, for some reason.’

Dermot was so engrossed in a discussion about the merits of various genres he barely noticed her leave. She pushed down a feeling of disappointment. He was here for the students, she reminded herself.

‘Well, I’m still up for it because I had a nap,’ admitted Maggie, one of the older women.

‘Me too,’ said a couple of others. ‘Learning stuff is so tiring!’

The next two days of the course followed the same pattern. Exercises in the morning, private writing or more exercises in the afternoon, long sessions in the bar, before and after dinner in the evening. Each student was to get a one-to-one session with Dermot. He had arranged this timetable himself although she’d been detailed to do it, so Laura didn’t know when he would be closeted with a lovely young writer. This was probably a good thing. She had enough on her plate. A flurry of writers had confirmed for the festival and as Fenella was now totally tied up with weddings, it being summer and the wedding season, Laura was trying to work out a timetable. Her afternoons were spent on this, and on reading other people’s work. Tracy had been so pleased with her criticism of her book, everyone else wanted Laura’s opinion. As the time had passed it had become obvious how highly Dermot thought of her, and how much he valued what she had to say, so the students did likewise. Although she had twice managed to get to the bar after dinner, she could never stay up for more than one drink, however much she wanted to. And much as she’d planned to make a move on Dermot, there just hadn’t been a moment. Nor had he suggested a quick, private coffee with her. He seemed to appreciate having her there but she just couldn’t work out if there was – as she hoped – a bit more to it than that.