Laura, companion in Westminster

Westminster empties at seven and fills again at eight, and Laura books around it. She is 169 cm with an athletic frame, sun-kissed light brown hair worn long, and green eyes that are the first thing people describe afterwards. At 25 she is direct company, equally easy beside a suit or in a plain black dress, and comfortable in rooms where everybody else is being careful.

She speaks fluent English with no real interest in small talk beyond the first five minutes. She runs along the river most mornings, follows politics without becoming tedious about it, and has an excellent memory for names, which is useful in this particular postcode. She will hold her own at a table of colleagues and then let you take the credit for having invited her. She is also unusually good at knowing when to stop talking about the day. Ten minutes in she will change the subject to something entirely unrelated, and the evening improves immediately for it.

Her Westminster evening tends to be a concert one. St John's Smith Square puts on early recitals that finish by nine, which leaves the night open rather than spent. Afterwards it is a six minute walk to the hotels around Parliament Square and about ten minutes by car to the river side ones. She travels in from Paddington, twenty minutes at that hour, rather less if the Bayswater Road is kind. She keeps a list of which kitchens in SW1 will still seat two people after nine.

She appears on the Westminster page. Figures for each duration sit under rates. Give booking an hour, a hotel, and any names she ought to know before she arrives.

Laura is comfortable being introduced to colleagues and will agree the story beforehand if you want one. Send Romilly the hotel, the hour and any names she should know.

Every figure she works to is on the board of rates, and the rest is one message away.

Laura keeps an evening tight and good. A recital at half past six that is over by eight, dinner at half past, and a night that still has room in it rather than one that has been filled up. She is easy in company and easier alone, and she is the person to book when the day has been long and you cannot face being entertained.

Later she is content with very little: a drink, the lights low, and a conversation that goes wherever it likes. She runs in the mornings, so she is honest about long bookings and honest about early starts. Everything she says about timing turns out to be accurate, which sounds like a small virtue until you have had an evening where it was not.