woolly gloves, his touch made her tingle. Bella shivered involuntarily.
‘You’re cold. Come on, let’s walk.’
She fell into step beside him. Actually, that was a bit of an overstatement. He strode out and she kept up by means of a sort of skip step every few paces. She was not a short woman but he was so much taller that he naturally outpaced her. It wasn’t comfortable.
‘When did you find your phone had gone?’
She told him about Lottie and retracing her steps through the flat. She didn’t tell him Lottie was not going to forget him calling her ‘Dream Girl’. After all, this could be the last time they met, he might never call her that again, so it wouldn’t matter, would it?
‘And how are you? No ill effects?’
‘From the champagne or the low-flying pot plants?’ And Bella told him about her morning-after scorpion scare.
He laughed so hard he actually stopped walking for a moment.
Grateful, so did she. He’d set a punishing pace and she had been racing along even before that. She was aware of the beginnings of a stitch in her side.
‘You’re a joy,’ he said when he could speak. ‘A total joy. I’ve never met anyone like you.’
‘Just accident-prone.’
‘Creatively accident-prone. You must have a very rich inner life. Scorpions!’ And he was off again, laughing helplessly.
‘Well, until about five days ago, scorpions were a clear and present danger for me,’ Bella pointed out.
‘I’d forgotten that. Has it been difficult for you, readjusting?’
They had started to walk again.
‘Not difficult exactly. But – well, I keep feeling I’m out of step, you know? I looked at a magazine in the hairdresser’s and didn’t know half the celebrities in it. I mean, I just didn’t recognise them.’
‘You’re a celebrity watcher?’ He sounded incredulous.
‘Not particularly. But they’re everywhere, aren’t they? If you watch TV or read a newspaper, anyway. And, for nearly a year, I haven’t.’
‘Oh, right. Culture shock.’
‘And how! I’ve got out of the habit of living with lots of people. I nearly freaked when I went shopping on Saturday. And as for the party … that’s why I retreated into the courtyard. All those people were doing my head in.’
‘Sounds reasonable to me.’
‘Yes, well—’ Bella felt suddenly shy. She’d told him all about making a prat of herself over Francis, for heaven’s sake. As if he were an agony aunt, instead of a sexy guy at a party. ‘You were very kind.’
He stopped. ‘Kind? No. Call it fellow feeling.’
She searched his face. He seemed to mean it but …
‘Why?’ she said doubtfully. ‘Have you done the year away thing?’
‘No. Or rather, yes, I do it all the time. I travel a lot, you see. Abroad, mostly. When I come back, everyone expects me to get off the plane and start right on trucking, like nothing’s happened. Because, of course, nothing has – to them.’
He travelled a lot? Banker? International lawyer?
Before she could ask, he said, ‘It’s disorienting. Well, it disorients me. And it can make you feel really lonely.’
‘Lonely,’ she echoed. ‘Yes. Yes, that’s it.’
‘You’re not the person they knew, that’s the trouble.’
‘Ain’t that the truth? A year ago, I’d have shopped till I dropped. And danced all night.’
He grinned and started to walk. ’It will come back. People don’t change fundamentally.’
‘Do you think?’ She was doubtful. ‘Never?’
‘Not in my experience.’
It didn’t sound like that experience had been good. Bella looked at him sharply, but those massive shades hid his expression and he didn’t say anything more.
‘Well, I hope I at least get my phone habit back,’ she said brightly. ‘Lottie never moves without hers.’
‘Oh. Yes.’ He rummaged in the pocket of his hooded jacket. ‘Here you are.’
In the morning sun, the phone looked very sparkly and very pink.
‘Thank you,’ said Bella, faintly embarrassed. ‘I hunted everywhere for that yesterday.’
‘I was starting to think that you’d written it off.’
‘No way.’ She was horrified. ‘My life is in that phone. Or, at least, my life up to ten months ago.’
‘So why did it take you so long to call?’ he asked curiously.
She almost said: because I had to call my mother and I didn’t want to think about it. But you don’t have conversations like that at 8.30 in the morning while striding round a public park. So she said vaguely, ‘Oh, life started happening.’
Through the autumn trees she could see a brisk breeze ruffling the waters of the lake. They were walking through an overgrown part of the park and a man in a tweed cap and Barbour was peering