‘It’s going to be fucking brilliant fun when you’re out and we’ll be together at Vernd and free. Or, y’know, freer.’

‘What sort of fun?’ Agla whispered, and she felt a surge of relief like the kick from a drink. ‘Tell me what kind of thing you’re thinking about.’

‘Just, y’know. All sorts…’

Now Elísa was whispering, and Agla closed her eyes, imagining her face with its shy smile and the teasing flash in her eyes.

‘Tell me how,’ Agla said again.

Elísa giggled into the phone.

‘Stop it! Just … you know.’

‘I know,’ Agla said and laughed with her. ‘I’m just teasing you.’

Long after Elísa had put the phone down Agla felt she could hear her breath, the low giggle and her bubbling cheerfulness echo inside her.

‘Finished?’ Ewa the warder asked, startling her.

Agla had been standing there by the phone for a good while, grinning into space like an idiot.

55

Sonja stood in the storeroom doorway and stared at the cage. Alex had disinfected it before leaving, so now it was clean and ready for the next candidate in need of a little discipline or a spell of cold turkey. Sometimes she felt as if her whole life revolved around that cage. It had become symbolic of her whole existence, ever since she had walked into Thorgeir’s trap eight years ago and found herself coming to this house to collect a shipment to take to Iceland.

Sometimes when she looked at the cage it felt as if she herself was its occupant, her existence fenced in by immovable iron bars, but still able to look out through them and see the life she could have had. A life in which Tómas would have lived with her instead of spending much of each year at a boarding school. A life in which Agla would have woken up every morning beside her and cooked a meal every evening.

Sonja banged the storeroom door shut and locked it. These days it was rare for her thoughts to turn to Agla, which was a relief as she always felt sad when they did. There had been such a powerful attraction between them that it had been painful to end their relationship. She had suffered nightmares for weeks after she had abandoned Agla, and often thought she had caught a glimpse of her on London’s streets, in the shops and even in a car in the street outside as she sat by the window in the evening darkness.