What will happen does happen. What will be comes about. Rupert and Annabel, Gus and Marion leave together. Rupert and Annabel shake Jomier’s hand as they take their leave, saying how nice it has been to meet him and how they hope to meet him again. Gus too shakes his hand. ‘Cheers.’ Marion lurches across the room to say goodbye to Jomier: she hugs him, kisses him and whispers: ‘You lucky man!’ Judith sees her guests to the door. Jomier waits in the drawing room, his back to the gas log fire. Judith comes back into the room. ‘I’m sorry about Marion. But she’s an old friend.’ She glances anxiously at Jomier. His expression reassures her. She goes to him and places her hands on his shoulders. ‘I’m so glad you came.’

‘Shall we clear up?’

‘Oh no. That can wait.’

Jomier reaches round with his right hand to draw her gently towards him. He lowers his head. She raises hers. They kiss. The kiss continues. The bodies entwine. Jomier moves her back towards the sofa. She falls back gracefully, her weight on his arm. Jomier moves his lips to her shoulders, her throat, her neck. She takes a deep breath, clutches his back but starts to slip off the sofa. They break apart and sit up. ‘This is rather teenagerish, isn’t it?’ says Judith. ‘Let’s go upstairs.’

PART TWO

PART TWO

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Christmas. A bad time for the divorced. Who spends it with whom and where? It is Jomier’s turn to celebrate the birth of Christ with Henry and Sandra or, more properly, Henry and Sandra’s turn to spend it with him. Jomier’s house in Hammersmith is smaller than Henry’s house in Queen’s Park – cramped even for a neat nuclear family + grandfather. It makes more sense for Jomier to go to them but there is nothing special for Henry and Sandra and Samantha and Ned in celebrating Christmas in their own home. It is also a waste of the precious Christmas–New Year holiday to spend it in London. They want their children to breathe fresh wintry air. Knowing this, Jomier once rented country houses from the Landmark Trust. This made Christmas costly but he considered it a price worth paying for a happy Christmas. But the Christmas was not particularly happy. A happy Christmas requires thought and preparation. Jomier did what he could. A turkey from Lidgate’s. A Stilton from Paxton & Whitfield. A box of holly from the Shepherd’s Bush market. It was not enough. A rented house is not a home. There was no woman’s touch. Sandra was too busy, her touch on the keyboard of her BlackBerry until midday on Christmas Eve. Tilly had been good at Christmas. Jomier knows that Sam and Ned and Henry and Sandra would rather spend Christmas in luxury in Wiltshire with Tilly and Max.