‘I’m sorry, Kate. I know that what I did to Dan was wrong. But I swear I was just trying to help you, that’s all. I wanted the CIB off your back and that was the only way. I had no intention of hurting him, just scaring him.’

Kate could hear the desperate tone in his voice. Could see the absolute honesty in his face. But she also could feel the pull that this man had on her. She looked around the beautiful room: at the plush carpet, the watercolours on the walls, at the expensive linen and cutlery, and knew that she had missed all this but most of all had missed the man. Missed him with all her being, no matter what he had done. He was like the breath of life to her and she needed him. Whatever the attraction was between them, it was powerful enough to make her admit that what he had done to Dan didn’t really matter when he was with her, when he was close to her, when she could reach out and touch his face.

She looked at Patrick and he looked at her. It was more than an exchange of glances: it was like a tangible force, there between them. Each knew the other intimately, each felt the attraction that had brought her here today. Each wanted the rift between them breached so that they could get on with their lives.

Kate’s eyes were like dark pools of liquid light. Patrick searched them for some sign that she had relented. That he was forgiven. As she picked up her wine glass and smiled at him, he felt as if someone had given him an injection of pure happiness.

‘Cheers, Pat.’ She sipped the heavy red liquid and as she did so knew that there was no going back. She had accepted his way of living one hundred per cent. Dan would be forgotten, everything would be forgotten, except for their urgent desire.

Patrick opened the serving dish that had been placed on the table by Willy just as they had driven up and filled Kate’s plate with slices of beef.

As she took the plate from him their fingers touched and the jolt that went between them was like a physical pain.

‘How’s Willy?’

Patrick filled his own plate and grinned. ‘He’s fine.’

‘Good. I rather like Willy.’

And she did. She knew that Patrick would go mad if he knew that Willy had been to see her, but it was the talk she had had with him that had helped her sort out her own mind.

‘Can I see you tonight, Kate?’

She smiled, taking a mouthful of juicy beef and wiping her lips with a napkin.

‘I don’t see why not.’

Putting down his own knife and fork he walked around the table and took her in his arms. They did not kiss, but as he rubbed his face in the softness of her hair, she felt as if she had indeed finally come home.