She stood up with her eyes closed. She came towards him, loose of body, with her eyes closed. She knelt, and folded her arms to make a pillow for her cheek on his knees, with her eyes closed. The room darkened. Guy felt that intimacy could actually kill you – that you really could die from all this pressure on the heart.

‘It’s sad, and ridiculous, but I make no apologies, I suppose. We can’t help wanting what we want. Can we. It may have sometimes seemed that I singled you out for a purpose. You were to take me out of my life. Take me to the other side. Through love. Through sexual love. But really my plan went deeper than that. I’m thirty-four. I’ll be thirty-five next month. The body ticks. I… I wanted to bear your child.’