Chapter Sixteen

On Christmas, ten years earlier, Stuart turns up at Jessamine’s remote, disordered but elegant house with a bottle of champagne and greets her dog, Hugo. The atmosphere is uneasy, the TV murmurs elsewhere, and Jessamine, dulled by drink and isolation, lets Stuart in.

In the kitchen, they drink unchilled champagne from tiny coupes. Jessamine laments her lover—a married man away in Istanbul with his wife. Stuart challenges Jessamine’s narrative, arguing that men often denigrate their partners to flatter a mistress and that Jessamine can reclaim control by changing her choices.

When Jessamine shows a photo, Stuart mocks the man’s age and presses the point that the affair began when Jessamine was eighteen and exploited by her boss. His prodding unsettles her but also pierces her defenses, revealing her pain and dependence.

Stuart insists he means no harm and claims he came because he worried about her being alone with her mother and child. He mixes practicality with flirtation, calling Jessamine pretty when she denies it, and tests boundaries by offering to leave if she feels uncomfortable.

Moved and newly attentive to Stuart, Jessamine asks him to stay. The moment cements a fragile trust and signals Stuart’s growing influence over her at a vulnerable time.