‘Have you been married for long?’ he asked as they came together in a careful embrace.
‘Two years,’ she said.
‘Any children?’
She shook her head. ‘Not yet.’
‘In the pipeline, then?’
She didn’t answer him.
‘I don’t like to pry, but you don’t seem as happy as I remember you. Is there something wrong?’
He felt her body tense in his arms, and he took that to be a yes from her. Very gently he drew her a few inches closer to him. ‘You can always talk to me,’ he said, his lips close to her ear. ‘It will go no further.’
When he heard a stifled sob from her, he looked over to the bar to check that Colin was still there and whispered again in Naomi’s ear to follow him.
It was Naomi who led the way outside, to the garden. Picking up a lantern lit with a candle, one of many that lined the pathways, while he helped himself to an opened and abandoned bottle of Champagne, she took him to a summerhouse. She closed the doors, put the lantern on a table and reached for the bottle in his hands and took a swig. Followed by another as she sat down on a creaking wicker sofa draped with woollen blankets and a couple of large cushions. He sat down too, and taking the bottle from her, drank from it.
‘It’s Colin,’ she said. ‘He’s … he’s been unfaithful to me.’
‘Is he aware that you know?’
‘Yes. For some reason he felt the need to confess that he’d slept with his secretary. He’s promised it meant nothing, and that it will never happen again.’
‘Do you believe him?’
She shot him a look in the flickering candlelight. ‘I want to.’
‘It’ll take time for you to learn to trust him again,’ he suggested. ‘Or more precisely, he needs to win back your trust.’
‘You’re the only person I’ve told.’
He was surprised. ‘Haven’t you told Geraldine? You used to tell her everything.’
‘I couldn’t have said anything to her, not when she was about to get married. She and Brian are so fond of Colin, particularly Brian. They were at school together.’
‘I hope Brian’s up for the challenge of being married to Geraldine,’ Ellis said. ‘My abiding memory of her was that she was pretty formidable.’
‘She hasn’t changed. Nor have you, I’m pleased to say.’
Unable to say the same of her, that he could never recall her being so weighed down with sadness, he passed the bottle back to her. It was like a game of pass the parcel.
When she’d taken another swig, bubbles frothing down her chin, she said, ‘Have you ever cheated on a girlfriend?’
‘No,’ he answered, his hands twitching to wipe her chin.
‘Me neither. But … ‘
‘But what?’
‘I don’t think I’d better say.’
He swallowed and watched her wipe her chin with her hand. ‘Perhaps not.’
The silence between them lengthened. ‘We never once kissed when we were students, did we?’ she said.
‘Not that I remember,’ he said lightly, his gaze on the glowing lantern. ‘I’m sure I would recall it if we had.’
