Even more distressing, after a whole week of travel to get here, there was nobody waiting to greet me. I sat in my wheelchair, wondering what to do, when suddenly I heard the barking of dogs. A moment later, two enormous beasts came bounding around the southern end of the house. They were strapping great dogs. Hunting hounds I guessed by their sleek physique, but not like any I had seen before. They had black heads and their bodies were speckled like a plover’s egg. Their long, floppy ears swept behind them and bright pink tongues lolled from their mouths as they ran to me. In just a few strides they were upon me and I was in danger of being licked to death as they smothered me with kisses. A moment later, a dark-haired woman in a very modern white-and-blue striped dress, that had none of the usual Parisian fancies like a tight bodice and a crinoline hoop, came striding around the house from the same direction. She was very pretty even in her plain gown, and she had a bright smile on her face as she called to them. “Berlioz, Balzac!! Heel!”

The two dogs whimpered as if they were children who had been caught being particularly naughty and they went straight to her, tails wagging. They fell into step at her side as she approached me.

“It is so lovely to meet you, Mimi has been so excited about your arrival!” Chantal greeted me warmly. She took the handles of my chair and began to wheel me to the house, chatting away as if we were already great friends. “She is out bringing in the bulls with the gardians,” she said. “I packed us a lunch to take to her. We’ll put your bags inside and then depart. Now, where is Pierre to get your bags? Pierre!”

We had come around the back of the house, and here the swampy fields became a lake. There were two small punting boats moored up next to a tiny jetty, and in one of those boats a boy about my age was lazing with his hat tilted down over his face to keep the sun off. At the sound of Chantal calling his name, he roused himself dozily out of the vessel, tilted the hat back and sat up.

“All set to go!” he said, trying to act as if he hadn’t just been fast asleep.

“Then grab Rose’s bags and take them inside and we’ll be off,” Chantal said. “The gardians will be waiting for their lunch.”

Pierre got up lazily, and there was something about the way he walked towards me that made me feel as if he were more accustomed to being on the water than land.

I liked him straight away. He had sandy blond hair, and freckles on his tanned cheeks, and his eyes smiled even more readily than his mouth. He reminded me a little of Dorian.