They were still braced for disappointment, because they knew they shouldn’t be lucky any more – there was something dangerous in the wonders the gods were offering. They walked past the church, and down the steps, and turned right as they had been instructed. There was a row of cottages, but Casa Elouisa was further down the hill, on its own – it was a pair of huts that the owner had knocked into one. When she had guests, she withdrew into a couple of rooms, and the guests took over the lounge, bathroom, balcony, bedroom and – best of all – the roof terrace, with its view over Eden. When the sun went down the hills turned pink and blue, and the moon came up just like a balloon.

The wine was cheaper than bottled water.

The fridge was old, but powerful: they chilled the white so it hurt their mouths, and they would eat and finish with warm red. Michael had returned, once, on his own. The village was as beautiful, even without Elizabeth. Elouisa was still there, and she remembered him – or claimed to. She had asked if they had married.

‘No,’ he said, wishing they had.

But they hadn’t, and it had been right not to. She had touched him one day, and realised he was all wrong. She must have felt whatever it was that was broken, and thought the logical thing she had to think, for isn’t it the engine that drives the species on? I will not have the children I want with this man, because he doesn’t want to have sex with me. We can be friends. We will stay friends, but we will not marry.

‘We do love each other, don’t we?’ he probably said, at some point.

‘We’re not lovers, though.’

‘No. Everything is perfect, apart from that. We’re not lovers.’

‘What’s wrong, Michael?’

‘Nothing.’

You don’t mean to, I know – but you make me feel so very unattractive.

She hadn’t said that: she had written it down, in a letter.

He finished his coffee, and watched James and Luke serving someone else. Then he checked the electronic screen – his train was running three minutes late, and would arrive at platform three, on its way to Birmingham. It was going all the way to Nottingham, in fact, having come from Cardiff.