Kate swung around. ‘You gave me a shock . . . You’re not. Late, I mean.’

‘Good day?’

‘Er . . .’ Kate thought about what she could say without giving away her true intentions. ‘I had lunch with Sir Alan, who’s just managed to get Alice home. He didn’t seem in great shape, as you’d expect.’

‘I know. Poor man. Did he take you to Grumbles?’

‘Yes.’

‘Must have been important to spare the time in a week like this.’

Kate recognized this as her aunt’s subtle way of asking a question. ‘Yes, but I suppose I’d better not go into it.’ She thought of raising the matter of Maja’s extraction from Belgrade, but decided to avoid that as well.

‘Have you heard the news?’

Kate shook her head.

‘The Germans have already dispatched an expeditionary force to Estonia. The French say they’ll follow suit. The foreign secretary described it as sensible, the prime minister as rash. Cabinet discipline seems to have entirely broken down in this country.’

‘It’s all just signalling now the Russians have backed off,’ Kate said. She turned to face her aunt. ‘I’m sorry to have to ask another favour,’ she said, ‘but I have to go to Finland for a few days. Could you bear to hold the fort one more time?’

‘Finland?’ Rose exclaimed. ‘I guess I shouldn’t ask.’ She smiled. ‘At some point, I’d better reacquaint myself with my husband or Simon will divorce me. Are you sure you’re up to it?’

‘Yes. I’m fine. Really.’

‘Have you been sleeping?’

‘Yes,’ Kate lied. She carried on cooking. Rose poured two very large glasses of white wine.

At supper, Gus was garrulousness itself, regaling Rose with his plans for the Compton House under-fourteen A cricket XI. They meant nothing to Kate and not, she suspected, much more to Rose, but neither said so.

Kate had texted Fiona repeatedly over the course of the evening and received no reply, so she set out after dinner for the brief walk to Jed’s house. She was surprised to spot a car on her tail. Surely her watchers at the Security Service didn’t think she was stupid enough to meet a Russian agent handler when she knew she was under surveillance. But that was their business.

Jed’s parents were a charming couple in their late fifties, who lived in a spacious top-floor apartment overlooking Battersea Park on Prince of Wales Drive. They offered her a glass of wine and politely avoided displaying any sense of puzzlement at the way Kate’s daughter had taken up residence in their home.

Fiona and Jed were both allegedly absorbed in homework and didn’t appear for half an hour – and then only, Kate suspected, at Jed’s insistence. His diffident, kind manner hid a touch of steel in the soul, which she was coming to be very fond of.