“I know. Very ahead of his time.”

“How come Mel Sauer never mentioned any of this to me?”

“I have no idea. What did he tell you?”

She shrugged. “Something about Marco being more aggrieved than they’d expected, even after I toned it down, and the story not being a big enough deal to be worth a legal fight. I didn’t question him because it confirmed what I thought anyway, though it made me furious that Marco thought he had any right to be aggrieved. That was actually when I first twigged that I’d written something important. I mean, I knew it was somewhat titillating, but I’d imagined people would just read it as a funny sketch of seventies sexual habits, which is how I’d thought of it myself. I didn’t think of it as anything serious. Not till they tried to stop me publishing it.”

She refilled her wine glass, gesturing at the bottle to indicate I could help myself, which I did. Her hand shook a little as she raised the glass to her lips. She narrowed her eyes suddenly.

“I see! So that’s why Renata Shenker changed her mind, too! She told me it was because she couldn’t deal with all the cease and desist letters Alec Rosedale was firing at her. Apparently he was going to force her into bankruptcy. But they must have shown her Gerald’s letter. Yes. I see now. Dragged her into their nasty little cabal. That’s the real reason why she pulled out. Very interesting. Very interesting.”

“Well, no actually,” I said, realizing I was going to have to break another unpleasant piece of news to her. “It was something different in her case.”

“What?”

I fortified myself with a large sip of wine.

“I think it was some correspondence about a book you wanted to write. On a German aviator.”

“Hanna Reitsch?”

“Yes. They got hold of your proposal, along with the report from the original publishers’ reader—a friend of yours, I believe.”

“Andrea Merton? Not that she’s still a friend of mine, by the way. But go on.”

“That’s what they showed Renata. That’s why she backed out.”

Julia looked even more bewildered than before.

“I’m confused. What on earth could that book proposal possibly have to do with . . . anything?”

I did my best to explain. It all sounded a bit far-fetched. Julia was looking increasingly agitated. She stood up before I’d finished, and began pacing about, biting at a nail.

“So Renata Shenker thinks I’m some kind of Nazi sympathizer? That’s why she pulled out?”

“I don’t know what she thinks.”

“What do you think?”

“I don’t think you’re a Nazi sympathizer. For what it’s worth, I don’t think Marco does either. But the way he sees it he’s fighting for his reputation—”

“Fuck him!”