Chapitre 23: Chapter 23: A swim and a meeting

At 5.25 am barely discernible music commenced, mid-measure, in Noel Valentine's bedroom cum living room. It was enough to wake her, coverless, garmentless and sticky as she was. Coverless and sticky because the night had again been hot and close. Garmentless because it was one of the discovered joys of living alone and further because she enjoyed the privacy of a top floor bedsitter with the luxury of its own balcony and no neighbouring balconies or windows to inhibit her from being garmentless on a hot and close night when she slept with the curtains pulled back and the balcony door wide for any breeze that might stray her way.