"I'm sure you'll have a large one," she told him, and managed to hitch up one corner of her mouth.

"You've found me out."

Whatever answer that might have provoked she trapped behind her teeth as she busied herself at the sideboard. Perhaps after all she would have a real drink instead of pretending a tonic was gin; his presence was even harder to bear than she'd antic.i.p.ated. Already the room smelled as though it was steeped in the aftershave he must have slapped on for her benefit. When she moved away from the sideboard with a gla.s.s of gin and tonic in each hand she found him at the window through which she didn't know how many times he might have spied on Laura. "Please do sit down," she said, masking her face with a gulp of her drink.

"Where will you have me?"

"Wherever you're comfortable," said Claire, retreating to the armchair closest to the door. As she'd handed him his gla.s.s she'd touched his fingertips, which were hot and hardly less moist than his underlip. The thought of them on Laura almost flung her at him. She forced herself to sit back and watch him perch on the edge of the nearer end of the couch.

"Strong stuff," he said, having sipped his drink, and put it on the floor between his wide legs. "So it's a financial discussion you're after, was that what I understood you to say?"

"I said profitable. Maybe beneficial would have covered it better."

"Happy to be of benefit wherever I can," Gummer said and showed her the underside of his lip, which put her in mind of a br.i.m.m.i.n.g gutter. "Do I recall the word company came up?"

"Nothing wrong with your memory."

"I wouldn't like to think so. Not like my mother's," he said, and glanced down between his legs while he retrieved his gla.s.s. Once he'd taken another sip he seemed uncertain how to continue. She wanted him in a state to betray himself by the time Wilf came back. "So what kind of company do you prefer?" she said.

"Various. Depends."

"Whatever takes your fancy, eh?"

"You could say that if the feeling's mutual."

"Suppose it isn't reciprocated? What happens then?"

"Sometimes it is when you dig a bit deeper. You think there's nothing, but if you don't let yourself be put off too soon you find what the other person's feelings really are."

Claire brought her gla.s.s to her mouth so fast that ice clashed against her teeth. "Suppose you find you're wrong?" she said, and drank.

"To tell you the truth, and I hope you won't think I've got too big a head, so far I don't believe I ever have."

"Would you know?"

"I'm sorry?"

Claire lowered her gla.s.s with as much care as she was exerting over her face. "I said, would you know?"

"I hope so this far."

His gaze was holding hers. He still thought they were discussing a possible relationship. While she swallowed an enraged mirthless laugh she won the struggle to form her expression into an ambiguous smile. "So what are your limits?"

"There's always one way to find out," he said, and revealed his wet lip.

"You don't think you should have any."

"As long as one takes care, and we know to do that these days. It isn't as though one's committed."

"Wouldn't it come down to not being found out even if you had a partner? I know you're good at not being."

"As good as I need to be, right enough."

That was almost too much for Claire, especially when, having planted her gla.s.s on the carpet to distract herself, she looked up to be met by the sight of his dormant crotch. Wilf ought to be home in a few minutes, she reminded herself. "And what age do you like best?" she managed to ask.

"Nothing wrong with a mature woman. A good deal right with her, as a matter of fact, and if I may say so -"

"Nothing wrong about younger ones either if you're honest, is that fair?"

"I won't deny it. Teaching them a thing or two, that's pretty special. There again, and you'll tell me if I'm flattering myself, sometimes even when it's a lady of our generation -"

"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d."

"Forgive me if I expressed myself badly. It wasn't meant as any kind of insult, I do a.s.sure you. Mature was what I meant, not so much in years as -"