Then came the lobster, and it took her breath away. It had to have been caught this morning, she thought. She’d never tasted lobster like this. She glanced up and Jake was watching her, enjoying her enjoyment. She should think of something to say, but it was too wonderful and she left him to think what he liked and went back to cracking a claw.

Or trying to crack a claw. She was struggling. Then Jake leaned over and cracked it for her, expertly, as though he’d cracked a thousand claws in his life. He tugged the flesh free and held it out. She almost took it straight into her mouth-but what was she thinking? Somehow she pulled back, took it in her fingers and slid it into her mouth herself. Almost decorous, but not quite.

Jake smiled and she tried to smile back and felt…and felt…

She didn’t know what she was feeling. She wasn’t making any sense to herself.

Rob was at her elbow then, asking if she wanted her wine refilled. She put her hand over her glass in a gesture of panic. Had she only had one glass? She felt dizzy. Or maybe floating was a better word.

They were eating by candlelight now. The night sky was full of stars and the moon was rising, vast and round. It was unseasonably warm, and the warmth was adding to her feeling that she’d been transported to another world.

Jake was watching her-she knew it-and that added to the floating sensation as well.

‘You can’t always eat like this,’ she managed as the housekeeper put a parfait of raspberries and chocolate before her. Mmm.

‘Jake said we were to pull out all the stops tonight,’ Mrs. Matheson said.

‘Though the food’s wonderful all the time,’ Glenda ventured. ‘This place is fabulous. Doreen and I keep coming here, whenever we need time out, and it’s like heaven. If only we could bring Pickles…’

‘Pickles?’

‘Our cat,’ Glenda said, suddenly sad, and once again Tori noticed her wince as she moved her hand. ‘He was very traumatised during the fires, but he’s better now. We’re all traumatised. We live in the relocatable village while we rebuild, but we both have health problems. When things get too much we put Pickles in the cattery and come here.’