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happened last week? I was all ready for you, my darling. I even ironed the sheets because I know how pernickety you are.’
    She smiled a little at that word but he was not getting round her as easily as that. ‘It’s all very well for you but it’s not easy for me to get away.’ She perched on the chair beside the little table where the phone sat. On the table there was a vase filled with her favourite cream roses. Mike had come home with them the other day. It wasn’t even her birthday but then he was so thoughtful on occasion. She touched one of the petals, dipped her head so that the scent drifted up, feeling suddenly a little sick. This deception was beginning to eat away at her. She was playing a dangerous game and she had to stop. ‘I told you at the start that you mustn’t expect too much of me,’ she said speaking softly although she was quite alone. ‘Christine always wants to know where I am and what I’ve been doing. I’m worried that she’s going to get suspicious if I keep sneaking off to Lancaster for hours on end.’
    ‘Why should she? You must learn how to lie. It’s a useful trait, Monique. The alternative is to pack all this in, leave that fuckwit of a husband of yours and come and live with me.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ she said knowing that he would run a mile if she took him up on that. Sol was a loner and liked the single life. She knew she was taking a huge risk. She also knew that he could turn nasty and start to blackmail her any time he liked but she did not think that wouldhappen. Sol was too lazy and too unconcerned about money to be a blackmailer. She had known him for a long time, long before she met Mike, but it was a chance encounter a few months ago that set it all off again. He had been living down in London for years but had grown tired of city life and come home. Meeting up with him unexpectedly, she was pleased to see him again. They were both grown-ups so there seemed no harm in going for a coffee with him to have a chat about old times but she had never meant it to escalate, never meant to accept his invitation to pop round to his flat, never meant for things to take off from where they had been left all those years ago. Walking round to his flat that day she had known what was going to happen by the look in his eyes and had felt faint with anticipation. In the event, they never made it as far as the bed that day. It was exciting and dangerous and stupid and she was risking a lot just for a few hours with him, at his flat, in his bed. It was also unbelievably sordid and that was exactly why she had made the decision to put a stop to it. She had tried to end it before but it had not worked. She was weak where Sol was concerned; she had to find strength from somewhere to put an end to it once and for all.
    ‘Where
are
you?’ she asked wondering if he was at his shop, if there was anyone listening in as she rewound the conversation in her head. It would be just like him to do something like that, to want to shock anybody who might be browsing amongst his bookshelves. If so, it was asking for trouble because he only had to mention her name and that would be a potential giveaway for there were very few women named Monique around here. ‘Are you at the shop?’ she went on, her alarm making her voice raise a notch.
    ‘No, of course not, I’m at home. I’ve closed early. It’s been dead all week and Rose wanted to do some shopping so I let her go.’
    Rose was the middle-aged lady who helped him out. Rose was an astute woman and that was why Moniquewas careful never to set foot in the shop in case the sexual electricity that sizzled between her and Sol somehow showed on Rose’s radar. It was unlikely that Rose would know Christine but there was no point in taking undue risks.
    ‘Will I see you before Christmas?’ his voice was low and confident for he knew damned well the effect he had on her. ‘Here I am all alone about to spend Christmas in solitary confinement