‘Let’s just go see the film and forget this, OK?’

His voice was wheedling.

She stopped and faced him.

‘You’re going to have to stop this,’ she said as tears streamed from both eyes, down her cheeks and onto her upper lip. She wiped them away with a swipe of her coat sleeve. ‘Stop going on about me ending up married to a Muslim. I don’t know who I’ll get married to. In any case, it won’t be you if you behave like this.’

Anton felt his heart melt inside him as he was consumed by regret. He couldn’t stand it when she cried.

‘Sorry, sorry,’ he mumbled, and could feel tears on his own cheeks. ‘Let’s go see the movie,’ he said. ‘I’ll buy loads of sweets.’

Now Júlía’s face broke into a smile and he laughed with relief. She extended her hand with the little finger cocked at an angle to hook it into his.

18

‘Look at the dog,’ Agla said, leaning forwards to speak, as her voice still felt strange, as if she had a throat infection. ‘Back in the past the dog and the wolf were cousins who were starving because man was catching all their prey. The wolf continued to compete with man, trying to beat him to the best food. But the dog decided to join with man, to follow him and get the bones when man had finished with them. Gradually, the dog started helping the man hunt, and was rewarded with better pieces of meat, and now he gets fed and petted, and sleeps at the man’s feet. Wolves are dying out all over the world while the dog is the evolutionary winner as there have never been as many dogs as there are now.’

María had sat and listened to Agla’s speech in silence, and now she stared at her with eyes wide.

‘And you’re comparing me to the dog?’

‘Not at all,’ Agla said calmly. ‘I’m comparing you to the wolf.’

‘Meaning that I and those like me are dying out?’

‘I’m pointing out that in this instance, it might be more to your advantage for us to be on the same side.’

María smiled bitterly. Now all that remained for her was to become Agla’s ally. This was the Agla who had prompted the disaster that had engulfed her. This was the Agla she had dreamed of nailing, the Agla who deserved to spend the next hundred years behind prison walls but who would undoubtedly waltz out of here in a few weeks with an ankle tag, leaving her free to go back to her usual tricks.

‘You could get an explosive story out of this. I’ll pay all the costs and whatever you ask for on top.’