‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ asked Collis. ‘What does trust have to do with what happened this morning? We’re not husband and wife, are we? We’re not even lovers. How can I possibly be unfaithful to you if I’ve never made any promises to be faithful? Did you ever hear me give my oath never to look at another woman? Hannah, you’re married to someone else — you can’t expect it of me!’

‘You’re wriggling now, Collis,’ she said, ‘and it doesn’t suit you.’

She reached the rickety mule trap with its dirty cushioned seats and its mildewed awning, and she reluctantly held out her hand to the muleteer to help her climb aboard it. She settled herself, and then she looked at Collis with self-possession and pride, but also with distinct regret.

‘However much you protest,’ she said, ‘the fact remains that when we first met each other, we were both conscious of an affinity of spirit. It was possible that, in time, this affinity might have flowered. Instead, I looked out of my window this morning and saw the very first seedling being trampled underfoot.’

Collis wiped the rain from his face with his hand. ‘Are you trying to tell me that we could have been lovers? In spite of everything you’ve said to the contrary?’

‘It wasn’t beyond the bounds of possibility,’ she said with dignity. ‘I have to confess, to my shame, that it did enter my mind more than once. I know I protested. But there were moments when it seemed like a sort of answer.’

‘Then why did you turn me away?’

She lowered her eyes. ‘I am not a New Yorker, Collis. I am not a woman of much intellect or experience. I know that I am attractive in your eyes, and in the eyes of many men to whom the sacraments of marriage are only there to be broken. I am attracted to you, too. There, I’ve said it. But I need to be handled with delicacy. I feel a great burden of guilt already, without having it aggravated. You came cantering up to me last night as if you were a steeplechaser, and I were just another hedge you wanted to jump. You were too bold and too flippant. Collis — I need reassurance before I can ever consider becoming acquainted with you more closely.’

Collis reached out and took her hand. Her fingers were limp and yielding, but he still held on.

‘You’re as giddy and confused as any woman I’ve ever met,’ he told her, as warmly as he could manage.

She kept her eyes down. ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ she said. ‘But I have my sensitivities, too. And what I saw this morning out on deck — well, it hurt my sensitivities considerably.’

‘You mean you were considering taking me as a lover, and now you don’t know?’

‘Collis, it was that dreadful girl—’

‘That girl was nothing! That was the most absurd thing that has ever happened to me! She just — popped herself out for no reason at all!’