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no,’ he says hastily and, instantly embarrassed at this ungallant denial, adds, ‘not that I wouldn’t have bought some more if I’d realized . . .’
    â€˜So I should hope,’ says Pidge indignantly. ‘I’m not some old concierge, you know, sitting about here waiting for the doorbell to ring.’
    He begins to laugh and Pidge sees exactly why Angel has been behaving like a woman who is head over heels in love. ‘I give in,’ he said. ‘Would half each settle the point?’
    â€˜Certainly not,’ cries Angel. ‘They’re all for me. Come on up and we’ll have a drink. And you, Pidge! Don’t go all tactful on me. I want you to meet this man properly. He’s coming down to the theatre with me later.’
    They climb the stairs and, once inside the big first-floor room, Felix and Pidge shake hands solemnly.
    Pidge’s level brown-eyed gaze continues to unnerve him a little. ‘And will this be the first time that you’ve seen the play?’ she asks.
    He reddens slightly, suspecting that she already knows the answer, guessing that he is being teased, and Angel, pouring drinks, chuckles triumphantly.
    â€˜This’ll be the third time, sweetie. How’s that for devotion?’
    â€˜Very commendable.’ Pidge continues to watch him, assessing him, and Felix has the uncomfortable suspicion that these two women have no secrets from each other.
    â€˜It’s a good play,’ he answers lightly.
    When Lizzie comes downstairs from her high attic room he shakes hands with her just as if she is grown up.
    â€˜Did you bring me a present too?’ she asks when she is shown the roses and Pidge chuckles at the expression on Felix’s face.
    â€˜He forgot me too,’ she says to Lizzie. ‘Shocking, isn’t it?’
    â€˜I had no idea,’ he pleads, addressing Lizzie, ‘that there were three ladies living here. May I come again and make up for it?’
    â€˜I like chocolate,’ says Lizzie warningly, lest he should bring the wrong kind of presents. She likes flowers too, but chocolate is best. ‘And Pidge says diamonds are a girl’s best friend.’
    â€˜Does she indeed?’ Felix laughs as Pidge covers her face with her hands and shakes her head in despair. ‘Well, the truth will out. I’ll have to see what I can do.’
    â€˜I like him,’ says Pidge much later to Angel. ‘I like him a lot. So does Lizzie. I’m just warning you that you’ve got competition.’
    â€˜Oh, Pidge,’ Angel’s eyes are huge with joy and love, ‘he is rather nice, isn’t he?’
    â€˜Mind you,’ Pidge tells her, touched by the evidence of Angel’s feelings, ‘I’m not committing myself just yet. It’s all hanging on those diamonds.’

CHAPTER SIX
    â€˜Have you thought of going to Bristol with Felix next weekend?’ asks David Frayn. ‘It’s about time you had another break.’
    He stands at the drawing-room window looking out into the dusk. Earlier a blizzard has swept in over the Channel and the branches of the fir trees are weighed down with smooth, rounded snowy domes, which fall from time to time in soft powdery explosions. Below, on the rocky, ice-glazed slopes of the hill, a fox moves cautiously in the shelter of the furze, a note of warm russet in the freezing landscape, whilst the silver disc of a moon, thin and insubstantial, is already setting behind Dunkery.
    Piers, cross-legged on the hearth rug, is collecting up his toy soldiers and putting them away in the big wooden box. Grandfather has been advising him – ‘Now, you put your artillery here , d’you see? And the infantry here ’ – and they’ve had a very good game, but he senses a tension in the old man as he stands at the window; there is a note in his voice that Piers can’t quite place. Although he doesn’t know why, he