‘Scheduled romance is an oxymoron,’ said Bette curtly.

‘Well,’ said Wendy, with an amused look, ‘that’s that settled.’

She headed towards the door, but became aware they weren’t coming with her. Looking back, she saw Bette had become tearful.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I didn’t mean to snap.’

Tina put her arm around her. ‘Just tired,’ she said. 

Wendy didn’t doubt it.

***

Back at the estate, Bette and Tina’s Land Rover passed row after row of vines being prepared for ‘bedtime’. Tons of compost and fertiliser being spread, on top of which cover crops would be grown to lock nitrogen in over winter. The result was . . . smelly. During fermentation there was everywhere a heady, bittersweet scent of crushed warm grape skins, but there was nothing romantic about shit. As Bette got out of the car and went into her house, she was glad the dining pavilion only ran weekends.

House 2 was built into a slope a short distance east of Helena and Dylan’s place, ‘as if on a tete-a-tete’, as Bette put it. The first floor was taken up by the great room, a kitchen-cum-living room dominated by an enormous, solar-electric kachelofen. ‘The most beautiful almost-divorce you can imagine,’ Tina called it when people admired its twelve-foot-tall, exquisitely tiled facia. Bette’s love for it was boundless. And, in truth, it had an old-school charm that gave the room the lived-in feel Tina wanted.

Helena and Dylan liked to host Monday dinner, so around six Bette, Dani and Artie strolled across the burnished courtyard and into the Old House.

‘Oh, precious, precious . . .’ cooed Helena as she all but grabbed the baby. ‘I’m so jealous! Why can’t I have a godson as beautiful as you, hmm?’

‘Watch your zapper,’ said Bette, ‘he’s already had mine.’

Helena laughed and took Artie over to see Dylan just as Tina appeared with a bowl of microgreens and some tomatoes for the salad. Dani sliced bread and Bette fetched a bottle of fresh young Vermentino from the wine fridge. When they sat down at the long oak dining table, Helena sat Artie on her lap.

‘How was everyone this morning?’ she asked.

‘Good,’ said Dani. She speared some asparagus and dipped it in hollandaise. ‘Shane seemed a little ragged.’