Sienna

In the margin

A few days each winter the cloud pulls back and the sun comes in at an angle that reaches the far wall. Sienna thinks those afternoons worth arranging something for, partly because the light is honest and partly because the cold arriving with it is dry instead of soaking. She warms the oil exactly as always and asks for one lamp to be left switched off. Italian and English, both easy. Twenty-seven, and she is better at a long afternoon booking than at a short evening one, which she says at the outset rather than later.

Sienna 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.