His head snapped forward and he wiped his hand across his nostrils, sniffing noisily. His face looked unfocused, like two celluloid images placed upon each other. He seemed to be frowning and smiling at the same time, aware that his features were not in his control but too bewildered to rearrange them.

“Jesus Christ!” he blurted. “What the devil are you doing here?”

“It is you! Oh, David!”

His face blurred with sudden fury. “What’s this about?”

Now I was afraid, but I sat beside him, close enough for our knees to touch, and hitched up my short skirt even further. “Listen to me, David. You called me an idiot that night, and you were right, I was an idiot. But I’ve learnt a lot since then.”

My heart felt as if it would burst. Comprehension began to come into David’s eyes, and for a moment he looked like the David I knew and had loved so desperately. Not angry or full of loathing, or triumphant, but open-hearted, and captivatingly handsome. “How did you get here?” he asked suspiciously, but more calmly.

I could hardly speak. The world whirled about me; I was back in that hotel room, moments before David’s betrayal, when he had held me in his arms and I had believed he loved me. Love, as Aidan had pointed out, was not subject to rules or logic. As I sat there in that ridiculous dress, I barely needed to act the part Aidan and I had concocted. David’s capacity for entrancing me seemed undimmed. “I… Well, I came on a boat and a train, just like you did,” I said lamely.

“And why did you come?”

Why did I come? I decided to tell the truth. “I came to see you again. I heard you were here, and—”

“How did you hear that?”

He wasn’t supposed to ask all these questions. He was supposed to fall obediently into the trap Aidan and I were setting. His beautiful eyes looked very blue, and very distrustful. “I met this man, Stefano Bassini, and he said his father was a film director and knew you, and you were coming to stay at his villa. I knew I had to follow you, David. I can’t live without you.”

For a moment I thought he was about to do as I had feared – have me thrown out – but then his lips stretched into a thin smile. “Well, here you are, and here I am.”

My heart had settled a little, and although my blood still rushed in my ears, I gathered courage. I leaned forward and laced my fingers around the back of his neck.

“David, I know you are married and involved me in those photographs to procure a divorce. I’ve worked it out about Marjorie, too. But it’s no good.” I gazed at him imploringly, as conscious of the movements of my lips and eyes as when I was in front of the camera. “I don’t care about other women. I can’t stay away from you, no matter what’s happened between us. I’ve realized how much I love you. And now I know how much I desire you.”