Billie looked at me with a smile; it was a clean smile. The Princess lay beside her, so quiet. I went up to each of them, and kissed them both softly on the lips. ‘Good night . . .’ and ‘Good night . . .’ The trees rustled loudly outside. For a second I stopped by the bed.

‘How did all that come about so suddenly?’ asked the Princess quietly.

Chapter Five

That was some throw! said Hans –

and he threw his wife out of the window

1

It was a day such as you usually get only at the end of summer: bright, heavy and windless. We lay on the shore by the lake.

A few yards away, a boat was bobbing around, our bathing-boat – the water gurgled quietly against the wood, up and down, up and down . . . If you put your hand in the water, you felt a tiny shock of cold, then you took it out again, and the droplets dried in the air. I sucked on a blade of grass. The Princess had her eyes closed.

‘Today is the day before yesterday,’ she said. That was how she calculated time, seeing as we were leaving the day after next, then today was the day before yesterday.

‘Where do you suppose she is now?’ I asked. The Princess looked at her watch. ‘She’s between Malmö and Trälleborg now,’ she said, ‘in an hour she’ll be boarding the ferry.’ Then we were silent again. Billie – I thought – Billie . . .

She had gone – quiet, happy, cheerful – and nothing had happened, nothing had happened. I was glad; it had cast no shadow. Thank God. I looked over to the Princess. She must have felt it; she opened her eyes.

‘What’s with Frau Collin? She’s not natural. What sort of egg did she hatch from? The cat must have laid it!’

Frau Collin hadn’t written – and we wanted to leave. We had to leave; our holiday was at an end. Telephone again? After all, in the end . . .

‘Irritating woman,’ I railed to myself. ‘We’ve got to get the kid out of here! Bloody hell . . .’

‘Poppa, you’re an ambassador for your country!’ said the Princess with dignity, as if the Swedish trees could hear us. ‘You should remember your manners!’ I used a word of one syllable. Whereupon the Princess splashed me with some Lake Maelar. I wanted to throw her in the lake. And found myself in it.

I snorted water at her like an elephant, she threw matches at me . . . then it all subsided. I crept back up, and we sat together peacefully once more.

‘But what are we really going to do?’ I asked dripping. ‘Wait? We can’t wait any longer! You have to be back on Tuesday, and they’re lying in wait for me as well. A man has got to start working again some time! I’m just wasting valuable time here with you . . .’

She raised her arm threateningly. I moved away a little.