A ghost of a smile crossed his face. ‘You won’t run off and go cruising down the river without me? You will be here when I return?’

‘I’ll be here unless you keep me waiting too long. In which case, I’ll be down in the coffee shop having something to eat. How long do you think you’ll be?’

‘Shouldn’t be more than an hour.’

She unpacked, made her first shopping list for the house, then curled up on the bed with one of the novels she had bought. But she couldn’t settle to reading and found she was missing Ben’s company more than she’d expected.

As two hours turned into four, she went down for a snack, then returned. She tried watching TV, but couldn’t find anything that interested her. Where was Ben? Why hadn’t he got in touch? It shouldn’t have taken him this long to visit the hospital. And anyway, even though he hadn’t got her a mobile phone yet, he could have called her via the hotel.

At six-thirty she had a shower and changed for dinner, not wanting to eat alone in their suite. She scribbled a note and was just about to go down to the restaurant when Ben returned.

He came across and gave her a perfunctory peck on the cheek. ‘I’m sorry, Megan. Everything took much longer than I’d expected. I had to help Nick with some business as well as attend to my own.’

‘You might have rung and let me know.’

‘It wasn’t convenient to leave the discussions. I’ve said I’m sorry.’ His tone was sharper than usual.

‘What exactly have you been doing for Nick?’

‘Cynthia and I had to look at some property he was negotiating for, so that I could take over the negotiations, then I had to discuss prices and terms with the vendors. Nick will lose the whole deal if it isn’t sewn up quickly, and it’s rather a big one, so I’ve agreed to take it on board.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Look, I’ll just take a quick shower and change, hmm? I feel grubby.’

She watched him vanish into the bathroom. He had his leave-me-alone-I’m-busy look again. How she hated it when he shut her out!

And he’d been with Cynthia. She hated that, too.

He put his head round the bathroom door. ‘Could you get my navy suit out, please? And a shirt and tie? We have to go to a business dinner with Cynthia, I’m afraid. What you’re wearing will be fine.’