‘Where?’

‘Nowhere. Here. Just the two of us. I’m having Philippe send something up from Sans Souci. You don’t mind serving, do you?’

‘Of course not, darling. I’d rather we were alone. I’m rather bored of company just now.’

‘Me too . . .’ He kissed her on the belly, caressing the back of her thighs with light, butterfly touches. Then he slapped her backside. ‘Right. Get dressed. There will be plenty of time for this’ – he grabbed his swollen groin – ‘after dinner.’

‘I’d better leave some room, then,’ she said, and headed for the bathroom.

Massimo resumed his singing.

‘Misterioso, misterioso altero, croce, croce e delizia, croce e delizia, delizia al cor . . .’

Joel certainly knew what he was doing. After only four sessions, Christine was feeling better, both physically and mentally, than at any time in the last ten years. She slept well, she was more alert, and her legs, stomach and backside were definitely firmer. But there was something else – an indefinable tingle that she hadn’t felt since the divorce – or for a long time before that . . . When was it that she and Andy had stopped making love? When their lives together, even doing the most mundane things, were suffused with the possibility that their bodies might melt together, like they used to . . .

Now it was back, that sense of expectancy, as if some veil had been removed from the world, and everything was a little sharper, more colourful, more defined. Christine found herself smiling more often, looking at men in the street or on the tube – or even in court – with a renewed interest. Well, they certainly hadn’t mentioned that in any of the articles she’d read about the benefits of exercise. But it must be so. What else could it be? It couldn’t be anything to do with Joel, could it?

Could it?

She found herself looking forward to their sessions together, and had booked a six-week course, an extravagance to which she barely gave a second thought. Well, it wasn’t as if she was going on holiday, despite Linda’s continued urgings. And after six weeks under Joel’s expert tuition, she would be a new woman – ready to begin again. That was money well spent. Hell – she would put it down on her tax return as a business expense.

But it wasn’t just for professional reasons that she looked forward to seeing Joel, however convenient a cover that may have been. Of course he had to touch her, to talk about her body, to demonstrate things with his, occasionally to lift up his shirt to show her exactly what he meant when he talked about abdominals. And if she really wanted to improve her flexibility, then it was necessary for him to apply a little extra pressure to that raised leg, gently leaning into it with his torso. That particular manoeuvre seemed to bring his crotch into extremely close proximity to hers. She found that she didn’t object.