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beautiful in the valley.’
    â€˜It is beautiful. It’s eerie too, by the water. The wind makes that sound in the reeds. Almost a moaning. And there are those funny little houses.’
    â€˜We could walk there some time, if you wanted exercise.’
    â€˜I’d like that.’
    â€˜If you got sick of lying here, ogling the help.’
    â€˜Mmm. There’s only so much ogling you can do.’
    â€˜Before what?’
    â€˜Before you have to go and work it off, I suppose.’
    â€˜Roza!’
    â€˜What are you two laughing about?’ Karen called from the pool. She’d been swimming lengths, and her eyes were underscored with red loops from her goggles. She launched herself backwards without waiting for an answer, floating on her back while Juliet breaststroked gingerly past her, her shirt billowing with trapped air.
    â€˜It’s quite nice,’ Juliet said doubtfully, adjusting the cap on her orange hair.
    Roza tried and failed to get up. ‘Oh, Simon, I’m trapped. Can you . . .’ She was lying on her back. ‘Look, my necklace, it’s got caught on the fabric. I’m pinned. I’ll suffocate.’
    She laughed up at him. ‘You’ll have to reach behind my neck. Oh, ow!’
    He couldn’t get at the necklace from behind, because the deck chair had its own little awning over her head. And so he found himself straddling her, a leg on each side of her chair and his hands on her neck, feeling amid the strands of soft hair for the clasp of the necklace while she laughed into his face and his hair. And when he’d finally freed her from the webbed fabric of the deck chair and clambered off her as she sat up smiling and flushed, he turned to face four pairs of steady eyes: Juliet and Karen treading water in the pool, and beyond them Trent and Shane.
    â€˜It was chaos,’ he said half an hour later. ‘Huge house, total debauchery. It seemed so nihilistic, I was really struck by it.’ He corrected himself, ‘Or, I would have been if I wasn’t worried about Marcus.’
    â€˜Nihilistic,’ Karen said.
    â€˜He’s off.’
    â€˜One of his tangents. Pass the zinc, darling. Look, now my palms are peeling.’
    â€˜It can’t have been that bad,’ Karen said. ‘He always exaggerates. Harry Gibson’s a lovely boy. Peter says his new partner Janine’s been amazing with him. She’s really brought him on.’
    â€˜Well, his father’s a lovely drunk,’ Simon said.
    â€˜They’d probably just had a few. Holidays, people want to relax.’
    â€˜He was so relaxed I nearly called an ambulance.’ Simon shifted in his deck chair. He was actually very distracted. It was now safe, he felt, to take the towel off his lap. Climbing all over Roza had had a pronounced effect. He’d been obliged to throw himself down on his deck chair, covering his groin.
    Roza said, ‘Let’s walk to the Kauri Lake.’
    â€˜Oh, that’s miles,’ Juliet said.
    â€˜It’s not that far,’ Simon said to Roza.
    Juliet sat up. ‘Well, I suppose . . . Do you want to, Karen?’
    Simon said, ‘Well, actually, it’s quite far. And there’s not much shade. I did get quite burnt running out there, even in a hat — the glare comes up off the road.’
    Karen looked at him.
    He said, ‘I think David’ll be down soon. He wanted a swim before the Cock turns up.’
    â€˜Haven’t you just run out to the lake?’
    â€˜Yeah, but you know it’s the only thing that keeps me happy, loads of PE. And anyway, we haven’t had much exercise for days.’
    â€˜I’d better not,’ Juliet decided, arranging her scarves.
    â€˜I’ll come,’ Karen said.
    â€˜That’s the spirit.’ Simon was expressionless.
    Troy appeared in the gateway between the hedges. A tiny cloud of flies flew up from the grass and glittered