In the photo with the extract he looked terribly Slavic and beautiful, and years younger, so either the cameraman was clever or the facelift had knocked a few years off, though come to think of it, on closer study he also looked slightly waxy and blank.

You couldn’t say he hadn’t suffered for his art, and as far as I was concerned he could carry on suffering acute sex deprivation too, until he could look at me while registering some appropriate emotion.

Twenty

Action Man

NOVELTINA LITERARY AND CRITICAL AGENCY

Mudlark Cottage, The Harbour, Shrimphaven

Dear Randi Tisward,

Can this be your real name? I did wonder if it might be a pen name, possibly an anagram of your real one, but when I tried to make another name, all I came up with was ‘isn’t dirt award’, which is clearly nonsense.

Thank you for your cheque and manuscript. Yes, Newcastle-upon-Tyne does seem to be the new London of the North, doesn’t it? I will get back to you with my critique as soon as I have read it.

Yours sincerely,

Tina Devino

I was feeling absolutely devastated! Linny called to tell me that Nathan asked her if he could bring someone to dinner, all terribly tactfully, and that he would understand if it was inconvenient, so what could she say but yes?

He told Linny it was the daughter of old family friends, unexpectedly in town – and call me Sherlock Holmes, but could this be the girl he was engaged to that Ruperta told me about, who upped and dumped him on the eve of their wedding? Has she come back for another bite of the cherry?

I immediately felt very possessive, although he wasn’t mine to possess except in an agenty sort of way, or between the covers of my books – and he must certainly never be allowed between the covers of my bed; so it was probably all for the best. I made a mental note never to visit a hothouse in his company, because there is something about the verdant, steamy scent of lush greenery under glass that gets me going and I couldn’t answer for the consequences.

‘Are you still there?’ Linny demanded. ‘You’ve gone silent.’

‘Yes, I’m still here. I was just thinking.’

‘So there wasn’t anything else I could do but invite her, was there? Only that makes thirteen for dinner, which won’t do.’

‘No, it won’t, but I’m not going to come, so that will make twelve now. You can tell me everything later in detail.’