‘Of course. And it’s a promise about the cabin.’

She shifted slightly, looking beyond him to the bedside table. ‘It’s gone three already.’

‘These business lunches get longer and longer.’

‘You should be going. And I should be working.’

‘I’m sorry… I…’

‘Stop it!’

‘I’ve got a feeling that there’s a serious problem,’ he suddenly blurted.

Alice pulled away from him. ‘What?’

‘I want to be sure first.’

‘You’re not making sense.’

‘That’s the problem: it doesn’t make sense.’

She separated from him entirely, going up on one elbow. The sheet fell away from her but she didn’t try to cover herself. ‘Has George made a bad mistake?’ She’d eulogized him in the profile, put her own judgement on the line.

‘He could have done.’

‘Then you’ve got to talk to him today.’

‘I know.’

He had chosen to talk it through with her, decided Alice, feeling a warm intimacy again. ‘Can you put it right?’

‘I don’t know, not yet.’

‘It might help if you told me about it and we tried to think of a way together.’

‘I can’t involve you.’

‘Darling! What is it?’

He shook his head, not speaking.

‘So it’s bad?’

‘It could be.’

‘Could you be in serious trouble?’

‘It depends what I do.’

‘You know the answer to that – you’ve got to do the right thing. That’s all you can do.’

‘It might not be that simple.’

‘Please let me help!’

‘I won’t involve you any more than I already have,’ he refused again. He twisted abruptly out of the bed but stayed sitting on its edge, his back towards her again. ‘I shouldn’t have said anything.’

‘But you did. Now it’s stupid to stop.’

‘I’ve got to speak to George.’

‘Then will you speak to me?’

‘I don’t know. It depends.’