‘I’ll remember not to give you those.’

‘You’re going tomorrow,’ he said.

‘I know.’

‘Do you have to?’

‘Yes.’

‘Irene.’

‘Mmm?’

‘We need to be alone for a bit.’

‘We do.’

He lifted her hand and swiftly bent his head to kiss her palm. Behind them, Neil and Katherine were still clicking wooden pieces into place. On the deck above Lorrie was saying something to Mickey.

‘Tonight Mickey’s going to make us stay up all night. I know that manic gleam in his eyes.’

‘They’ll go to sleep eventually.’

‘And you won’t.’

‘No. I won’t.’

‘Good.’

She lay on her bed, not moving, naked, her book laid spine down across her stomach. A warm breeze blew through the open window. She watched the blue sky and the clouds rolling past. Small, plump pillows; a child’s drawing of summer. Cumulus. She touched her skin with the tips of her fingers. Tomorrow she would be gone, but there was still tonight.

Thirty-one

Almost all her clothes were dirty. She just had the scruffy jeans and creased tee-shirt that she would travel in tomorrow. She took her orange dress from its hanger and buried her face into its soft brightness; it still smelt new. When she dropped it over her head, it fell in light, whispery folds down her body so that she felt naked in it, libidinous. It stroked her skin when she moved.

‘You look nice,’ said Lorrie as she came out of her cabin.

‘My last night – I thought I should dress up.’

‘I’ll put a dress on as well, as soon as Neil and Katherine are out of the shower. But are you sure you can’t stay longer? We’ve only got a couple of days more ourselves.’

‘I’d love to, Lorrie – but it wouldn’t feel right. The girls are coming home in a few days and I don’t want to risk anything going wrong. I need to be ready –’

‘I know, I know. Well, we’ll miss you.’

‘I’d like to keep in touch.’ Irene felt suddenly shy.

‘Of course we’ll keep in touch. Actually, we’re coming to London in November. Neil’s got some meeting on fishing quotas he’s going to and Katherine and I are tagging along with him.’

‘Good, we can see each other then – I’d like that. And Katherine and Aggie can meet each other. I could take –’

She stopped for a moment as words rolled back down her throat; Luke had come from the deck, swinging from the steps, and was standing near her. Cropped hair, wide-set brown eyes that gave him the look of an alert, slightly anxious animal, thick brows, strong forearms, long fingers, scar on his lip. If she lifted a hand, she could touch him. Desire flooded her body.

‘I could take you places,’ she finished feebly.

‘Great.’

‘Shall we open that sparkling wine?’ said Luke. ‘Before we go out.’