Jon shook his head. His voice was suddenly bleak. ‘You can’t stay in the flat, Kate.’

‘What do you mean? Of course I can.’ Even then she took no notice of the warning bell clanging away at the back of her head.

He folded his arms, the familiar stubborn expression beginning to settle on his face softened by a hint of anxiety. ‘Derek has asked me to lend the flat to Cyrus Grandini while I’m away.’

Kate was speechless for a moment. ‘And who, may I ask, is Cyrus Grandini?’ she spluttered at last.

‘Oh, Kate.’ He was impatient. ‘The poet. For God’s sake, you must have heard of him!’

‘No. And I don’t wish to share a flat with him.’

His reply was apologetic. ‘There’s no question of sharing the flat. I’m sorry, Kate, but I have agreed he can have it for two weeks.’

‘But what about me? I thought it was my home too.’ She fought to keep the sudden panic out of her voice.

‘It is your home.’ He sounded angry rather than reassuring. ‘You know it is. Derek expected you to come to New York; so did I. I thought you would jump at the chance!’

‘Well, I haven’t.’

‘Then you will have to find somewhere else to go for a couple of weeks. I’m sorry.’

So, that was it. She knew where she stood. A lodger. A lover. But not a partner.

She stood up, scraping her chair back on the floor with such vehemence that the Japanese man next to her nearly dropped his pastry. He too leaped to his feet, climbing from behind the table so that she could squeeze inelegantly past him. A wave of frustration and anger and unhappiness swept over her. ‘If I go, I go for good,’ she stated flatly as her neighbour subsided once more into his chair and reached rather desperately for his pastry.

‘OK. If that’s the way you want it.’ He had turned away from her and sat, chin in hand, staring up at the horsemen from the Parthenon on the frieze on the wall above him, suddenly and shamefully near to tears. Correctly interpreting his rocklike stance the Japanese lady who had been preparing in her turn to rise and allow him to leave the table relaxed and took a large mouthful of sandwich.