He sighed inwardly. It would have been fun to parade her down the tree and cafe lined Boulevards of Avignon in the late afternoon before the sun went down. He could imagine the looks on the faces of his friends, especially the young girls who would stare and preen and talk.

But she was obviously an important person to his employer and that put her sadly out of bounds.

"Bien sure, Madame," he said, politely.

As things turned out, Sarah got to see the boulevards of Avignon with Tim and Michelle when they went out to dinner close to the Palais de Papes in the evening.

The world strolled by chattering and admiring itself in its smart evening wear and the three of them tucked into Escargot and Lobster washed down by a vintage Italian Barolo, 'the king of wines', said Tim. As the evening drew on they walked down to the Palais and admired the centuries old church buildings as they were made ready for the summer arts festival. Their arms were linked in easy camaraderie. Passers by that Friday evening saw a handsome man flanked by two beautiful ladies that attracted attention everywhere they went.

Michelle sported a figure hugging designer micro dress that seemed to hang by invisible forces to her slender figure.

Sarah wore a silky creation that billowed gently in the early evening breeze. It had been a gift from Michelle that afternoon and it made Sarah feel very good indeed despite her misgivings about their earlier conversation.

Tim felt good too, walking proudly between them with his head held high and an easy seigniorial smile - as any man would in his place.



Later, back in her room for an early night, Sarah felt tired but unable to sleep. She gathered her clothes together and started to pack her case ready for the next days' journey back to London. Coming across the floppy disk containing Joel's program, she decided to see if there were any messages on her computer back in Weybridge, London.

She inserted the disk into her portable computer and while it clicked and whirred to install the software, she found the telephone wall socket and connected it up. The Liquid Crystal Display screen glowed palely in the low light of her room. She dialled her home number, hoping that David had left the computer's power on with just the screen switched off. This was normal because it enabled faxes and other messages to be received and stored by the computer when it was not being directly used.

With surprise she found the screen filling up with an image of the spare bedroom. In her absence, David must have upgraded the computer to include video conferencing facilities probably as part of his job search. It made long distance calls through the Internet possible at local call rates. The computer could not only be used as a telephone but also to receive and send from a video camera that, from the angle of view, looked as if it was perched on top of the computer screen.

Sarah felt a pang of homesickness as she looked across the room. Neat and tidy it was, but it wasn't her who had kept it looking good even after the few days of her absence. Strange she reflected that in the midst of all this wealth and opulence she should long for the security of house wife chores.

She wondered where David was in the house. The video conferencing would incorporate a microphone but its switch was clearly set to off so there were no sound clues to listen to. She would have liked to talk to him but it was after midnight, he would have had a heavy day at the agencies and she wasn't sure how to make the program ring out for attention.

The image of her home was comforting, grainy though the picture was, it was a tenuous link with stability. After checking for messages (there were none), Sarah decided to leave it on for company, put on a night shirt and climbed into bed.

Through the Internet, the telephone charges were all local ones and anyway she rationalised, Michelle could afford it.

She must have dozed for a while and then awoke with some pleasure to see David come into view. It was now 12.30 a.m. and he had obviously just finished for the day. As he walked across the room, he undid his tie and took his suit jacket off.

Vaguely, Sarah wondered why he was getting undressed in their spare bedroom. But she couldn't help herself enjoying looking at him.