‘I must,’ he said gently. ‘You know that. I’ve enjoyed being with you very much and I think you’re lovely, Louisa. I’m incredibly flattered you should want me to stay, but I couldn’t do that to Marnie . . . and I don’t really think you could either. We would both regret it.’

‘Don’t say that!’ she said passionately. ‘I know I’m behaving badly. I know I shouldn’t be doing this but I can’t help it.’ She looked as if she might cry. Then she whispered, so quietly that he could hardly hear her: ‘It may be my last chance.’

At that moment the telephone rang. Louisa hesitated for a moment and then answered it.

‘Oh, hello,’ he heard her say. ‘No, of course it’s not too late for me. It’s very kind of you to ring at this time, though. Oh, I see. Yes. Please tell me then . . .’ There was a long pause while she listened intently to whoever was speaking the other end. Christopher saw her put a hand on the back of a chair as though to steady herself. All the colour had drained out of her face. She almost seemed to shrink and wither before his eyes like a winter apple.

‘Yes, I see,’ she said finally. ‘I understand . . . I’ll see you tomorrow then. Ten o’clock. I’ll be there. No, I’m not alone – there is someone here with me. Thanks for telling me.’

When she put the telephone down she sank on to a chair at the table and buried her head in her hands.

‘Louisa . . . whatever is it? Tell me what’s happened.’ He was appalled by the look on her face.

She looked up at him, face ashen, eyes enormous. She was shaking.

‘It’s happened,’ she said. ‘What I’ve always dreaded. It’s got me at last. That was my oncologist, the dear, lovely man who’s seen me through so much, ringing me with the result of a scan. My cancer has metastasised. It’s gone to my liver. It’s gone everywhere.’

Christopher knelt beside her and held her for a long time while she suddenly wept, great racking sobs that felt to him as if they would wrench her fragile frame apart.

‘I am so frightened,’ she whispered at last. ‘So terribly frightened. I don’t feel ready to die.’

‘Did he say that?’