Monday dragged. Tom checked the train times from London but, as Exeter is served by two different lines, there was too much choice of trains for him to have any clear idea of when Ros would return. He’d picked up The Case of the Velvet Ball Gown on several occasions. But he couldn’t find the courage to open it. Noah found himself taken for no fewer than four walks that day, including one in the near darkness at the end of the afternoon. But there was no sign of life in the cottage by the river. One positive thing to come out of this fiasco was the realisation that he didn’t want to lose the connection they’d just made . If she decided she didn’t want anything to do with a sexual deviant, as he now most probably appeared to her, he would be devastated. For the first time since Diane’s death, he could genuinely say he was attracted to another woman. More than attracted. He searched for the appropriate verb. He decided upon infatuated. He had spent most of Sunday discussing it with the Labrador, and was pleased to have been forced into this realisation.
