Banks

In the margin

The Jordaan freezes from the water inwards, and Banks has learned which of these old rooms hold their heat and which need an hour of warning. She asks about that in writing rather than finding it out with her coat already off. Her towels come out of the bag warm and go back into it cold, which is most of the argument for body to body in January. French and English are both there for a guest who has run out of patience with explaining himself. At twenty-four she is already certain that a cold floor undoes more of an evening than a cold night ever does.

Banks decides which bookings she takes and may decline any of them; she sets the limits for what a session includes, says what they are, and may end a visit at any point, as the terms set out.