Jimmy and Louisa drive him back to Buenos Aires: the children remain with Doña Adelina at the estancia. Jomier had said he would take the train. They would not hear of it. They park the jeep at the airport and hover while he checks in. At the departure gate, Jomier turns to Jimmy. ‘Many thanks. It’s been a wonderful Christmas.’

‘Adiós.’ A crushing bear hug. A last thump on the back.

‘Oh Dad,’ says Louisa. She hugs him gently. There are tears in her eyes.

Jomier: ‘Come to London.’

‘We will soon, I promise.’

He gathers together his hand baggage, his ticket, his passport and, just before passing out of sight behind the screen, turns for a final wave but they have gone.

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Now it is Jomier’s turn to spend Christmas with Henry but a new factor has entered into the equation. Judith. Jomier and Judith are now an item. They have been going out since the early autumn. They do not live together but meet up twice a week – midweek and at the weekend. Jomier returns home after meeting up with Judith on a Wednesday evening for a movie or an Indian, but the Saturday-night date lasts until the Sunday evening. They sleep over in one another’s houses, mostly in Judith’s. Both have met one of the other’s two children: Judith has been to Sunday lunch with Jomier together with Henry, Sandra, Samantha and Ned.

Both have used the word ‘love’. Judith: ‘Oh, oh, oh I love you so much . . .’ This during sex. Jomier: ‘I do believe I’m in love’ – this neither a mature nor premature ejaculation but the excited, surprised observation of a scientist conducting an experiment on himself. Over a biryani in a Keralite restaurant on King Street in Hammersmith. What had prompted his declaration? The touching eagerness with which she was eating? Or the disappointment he felt when she told him that she would be away at the weekend visiting her son in Devon? His dates with Judith had become the high points of his week. On a Monday morning he looks forward to Wednesday; on a Thursday he looks forward to Saturday. He is saddened, even angry, when she goes away – to teach at a week-long residential yoga retreat in Andalusia or to spend a weekend in Devon.