Clio had broadened, fattened up around the haunches. At first, Xanthe wondered whether she’d allowed the beginnings of middle age to subsume her, but watching Clio warily from a distance at that first communal lunch, she realized that old electricity was still there, asserting itself. Their guests, almost all well-to-do women with grown children, spoke a shared language of Spanish holidays and vineyard breaks, upmarket brand names and daughters’ gap years that she’d assumed would exclude Clio, but at least two of them seemed to have recognized her from her pop-star days, and she grew bigger and brighter under their attention.

‘She’ll be tricky in class, my love. Difficult to teach.’

‘So suspicious about this one,’ Nikolas said, catching her round the waist. ‘You may be right, but it’s just as important to allow her the space to learn and take what she can from our little sanctuary here.’

‘I will be right. But OK.’

Clio finally got her after the first evening’s gentle flow session, in which Xanthe usually assisted, acting as interpreter in case any of the guests struggled with Nikolas’s accent initially. A hand on her arm, both slightly sweaty. All warmth, all sunshine.

‘You. You look amazing. But you know that. It clearly suits you, being here. And what a place. What a view! Ach, I hope you don’t mind me being here, Xanth. It just seemed like such a perfect coincidence, that you had a place left. I’ve been meaning to get into yoga, for a couple of years now – I think it’s something I could really benefit from, you know? And I was out here –’ she spread a casual arm, indicating, presumably, the whole of Greece ‘– working with the anti-austerity folk in Athens, helping the potato farmers – some bloody amazing stuff happening there, but you’ll know all about that of course. It’s been a rough couple of years, and I just thought, why not be good to myself.’

Xanthe had begun questioning herself, under the sunlamp rush of words and smiles – why did she assume that everyone from her past was out to get her?

‘I needed to get away. Bad break-up, some health problems, and the stress of that court case. My God. I needed to be here and talk to someone who really knows. Went through it too. The whole thing with Mark.’

And there it was, thought Xanthe.

Clio was beaming at her.

‘It just seemed perfect,’ she repeated.

‘Well, everyone who comes here is trying to heal something.’

Nikolas was being irritatingly reasonable again.

‘I just – I’ve made my peace with it, love. I don’t want to be poring over it endlessly. This thing that happened; it’s still not the worst thing that has happened to me.’