‘I suppose you were out for a run this morning,’ she said by way of greeting, taking the chair between her husband and friend.

‘Yes, and very nice it was too.’ Had she been alone with her, Molly might have told her about the man she’d met. They would have laughed over it and wondered what if…

‘You coming to the spa? I have a massage booked for midday. We could go beforehand.’

Agreeing to meet her there, Molly went back to her room. Jack was sure to be awake; she took out her mobile to ring, feeling an urgent need to hear his voice. She had to settle for his voicemail when it rang unanswered. He was unlikely to still be asleep. He’d probably taken the Sunday papers to a nearby pub to read over brunch. She left him a voice message. ‘Having a lovely time but wish you were here,’ and hung up.

A few minutes later, her robe tightly belted over her swimsuit, she made her way down to the spa. The pool was large and inviting. Molly hung her robe up and slipped in, shivering for a second before immersing herself completely and starting to swim lengths. She had done several before Amelia turned up, and she swam to the side to meet her. ‘It’s a lovely pool,’ she said, wiping water from her eyes.

‘It looks nice, but I don’t feel like swimming. I’m going to the sauna. Coming?’ Amelia didn’t wait for an answer, sauntering across, hanging her robe on a hook and going inside.

Molly swam to the steps. She’d all day to spend and although she preferred the steam-room to the sauna it would be nice to spend some time with Amelia. Molly could get back into the pool when Amelia had gone for her massage.

They had the sauna to themselves. Molly sat on the cooler lower wooden bench, leaving the hotter top one to Amelia. It was the perfect opportunity to tell her friend about her unusual encounter by the canal. Whether she was confessing or boasting, she wasn’t sure. With the benefit of a few hours’ distance, the episode had taken on an almost otherworldly quality, a black-and-white scene from a vintage Hollywood movie. She cast herself as the mature elegant leading lady and him as the younger glamorous leading man in an old-style romance of thwarted love.

Amelia’s reaction put a damper on her imagination. ‘He sounds amazing… if slightly unbelievable… seriously, does anyone really have turquoise eyes? It sounds like you were carried away by the romance of it all, when what you should have done was drag him into a nearby field for a quick fuck.’ She raked Molly with hard eyes. ‘It would have done you good, you know. Honestly, one of these days you’ll realise that you’re way too uptight.’