It was all over in those three words:
“Now, Miss Trant!”
The unexpected sex? Oh, no! It’s we who can be trusted to do just what’s expected of us by our nearest man: to be heroic, petty, clinging or capable. He meant me to be utterly business-like and formal. Well, he found me so, my tone just matching his own.
“Now, Miss Trant!”
“Yes, Mr. Waters?”
“It’s about this nominal engagement of ours. That was to go on for a year, I think.”
“Yes.”
“You’ll be glad to hear it needn’t last so long, after all.”
“Not a year?”
“Not any longer at all. I’ve come to release you now.”