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putting out his hand very formally, the smile friendly, but less conspiratorial.
    I should have
said, ‘Yes, I know, you live in the flat below me.’ But I didn’t. Why didn’t I do that one thing
that would have made everything
simple? Perhaps if I’d explained, it would all have been fine. But, I didn’t. And, I knew why. Because
the irony of the situation was
that he’d gone out of his way to return my glove and as I had gone out of mine to steal his, I was
feeling very guilty. So, I put out
my hand and pretended I knew nothing about him instead.
    ‘Hi, I’m
Sophie.’
    ‘Are you here on
holiday, Sophie?’
    I hesitated.
‘Yes, I suppose so.’
    ‘Are you not
very sure?’
    ‘Well, it’s a
sort of working holiday, meant to be, anyway.’
    ‘I’m intrigued.
Doesn’t sound much like a holiday if you’re meant to be working.’
    ‘No. Well, I
haven’t really started doing anything very much.
    I plan to, of
course.’
    I looked down at
the floor, knowing that I wasn’t making very much sense, or being very forthcoming and thought
how boring I must sound. By
the time I looked up again, he was checking his watch and looked as if he had had enough. ‘Well,
Sophie, I have to be getting back
to work now. It was nice to meet you.’
    ‘And you. Thank
you for retrieving my glove.’
    For a moment, I
wished he’d ask for my number, or question me about where I was staying, though I was relieved
when he didn’t. I wasn’t
sure I could feign surprise when he realized we lived in the same building. Watching him depart, I
saw him weave his way through
the tables of middle-aged ladies nudging their friends and casting admiring glances at him as he
passed by. Well, at least it was
over, for the time being. However, the thought struck me that if we ever did meet in the pub, it might be
pretty embarrassing if
Lara were to start talking and he’d be sure to realize that I already knew about him. I would just
have to avoid them both was
all I could think.
    I left as soon
as I could. I didn’t want him to think I was following him, though I had to walk that way
myself, and I saw him turn
right by Upper Borough Walls. I couldn’t see anything of him by the time I’d got that far up and turned the
corner and, in any case, I needed
to head off for the supermarket. I selected a couple of ready-meals that I could heat up in the ancient
cooker, thus avoiding the
necessity of going to the pub and bumping into him. Adding grapes and clementines, milk, butter, a
camembert cheese and a loaf of
bread, I selected a bottle of wine from the chiller cabinet, feeling rather decadent.
    I took my lunch,
a plate of crusty bread and cheese, into the sitting room and filled one of the beautiful lead
crystal glasses I’d found in a
kitchen cupboard with the cool, gold wine. I thought about the meeting I’d had with Josh. He seemed
nice; and then scolded myself
for the use of that insipid word, which Jane Austen surely would not approve of after she made Henry
Tilney tease Catherine
Morland about it in Northanger Abbey . I admitted to myself that I
liked Josh. He’d really cheered me up and made me realize quite how much I’d begun to miss human
contact.
    I felt guilty
about the glove and stared at the box on the table, imagining I could see through it to the contents
within. Perhaps I should just be
brave, come clean and tell him the whole truth. Now I’d met him, I could just say how I’d tried to
return it, but he’d never been in,
or something like that. Taking it out of the box, I turned it over in my hand. I’ve always loved the
smell of leather and the touch of
the fine kid made me lift it to my face to stroke it against my cheek. I wondered who it had belonged
to, and if it had been some
illustrious captain in the Navy in Jane Austen’s day, perhaps Captain Holburne himself. Slipping my
fingers inside, I hoped to get a
sense of its owner.
    I was feeling
very light-headed from the wine, but the sensation that the room and