Marnie gave a muffled snort but Bunty looked nonplussed – until she caught sight of her arms. ‘Well, silly me!’ she said brightly, ‘It must be the Fun-in-the-Sun-for-Kids cream I bought yesterday – I had no idea. Perhaps I’d better go and wash my hands before our class. I wouldn’t want anyone to think I was eccentric.’

‘Then I think you might need to take a look at your face too,’ suggested Marnie trying unsuccessfully to keep her own face straight.

Bunty opened her bag and peered at her reflection in her make-up compact. ‘What a lovely idea for children!’ she said delightedly. ‘Whoever thought of that must really know what they enjoy. How clever! It restores my faith in the pharmaceutical companies. I’ve always feel they’ve got a bit too big for their boots. I shall give it to Isobel for little Rory,’ and Bunty, not at all put out, heaved herself to her inadequate feet and pattered happily off to remove her war paint.

‘I bet she’d still have bought it even if she’d realised what it did. You can’t help admiring her,’ said Marnie when she and Christopher had finished laughing as they watched her go tap-tapping blithely over the cobbles in her kitten heels. ‘She’s so completely herself.’

‘Unique, I should think,’ grinned Christopher. The clock over the theatre struck the half hour, but neither of them felt ready to go inside yet.

‘Marnie . . .’ he began, but she interrupted him.

‘I know you must be mad at me, but don’t say anything,’ she said. ‘Not until I’ve apologised for being so dumb yesterday . . . and not until I’ve wished you luck for this morning about your book. I really hope this thriller writer likes it.’

‘Thank you,’ he said, guessing the effort this speech was for her. ‘But there’s nothing to forgive. It was entirely my fault and I was the spiky one. And you helped me so much just by listening to me. You’ve no idea.’ He looked down at her. ‘Friends?’ he asked, suspecting friendship was something she had always felt short of; something, he thought, that he had taken for granted for most of his life but had recently come to realise was the most important possession one could have.

‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘friends,’ and this time she gave him the brilliant smile that so transformed her whole face and which, on the first day, he had wondered how to earn.

Then, hesitantly, she held out both her hands to him and he took them in his.

They were standing gazing at each other when Louisa came through the archway.

Chapter Sixteen