“What we’d like,” said Alison, handing Silver her shopping list, “is to go and live abroad. My father’s in Australia, in a suburb of Sydney. He was a few years younger than my mother, he’s only sixty-five now. They were divorced when I was twelve but we’ve written to each other, I’ve seen him every time he’s been over here. I’d like to see him again. I’d like to live near him. But we can’t get out of this country.”

“We’ve very little money left,” said Andrew. “We can’t sell our house without its being known where we are. If we went I’d want to take my father with us, he’s getting on now and he’s not a well man.”

I dared not look at Alison. Silver dared not look at me. We obviously weren’t going to get any further with settling their future, so we said it was time for us to go. Andrew opened the window for us and, leaning out after we’d climbed onto the balcony, said he still wasn’t sure about us, he couldn’t understand our altruism, it wasn’t what he was used to.

“How about Louis Robinson, then?” Silver said.

Andrew didn’t answer. “If you betray us I’ll never forgive you. I’ll get you. The mess your face is in is nothing to what it’ll be. And that applies to her too.”

Silver said gravely, “Good night. See you tomorrow. Don’t forget to leave the window open.”

“That wasn’t very nice,” I said as we climbed down the scaffolding.

“I suppose he’s under a lot of pressure. I couldn’t very well tell anyone in his situation not to worry, could I?”

It was from that night or perhaps from the night before that our interest in the roofs underwent a change. We no longer climbed on them for their own sake. Our passion for them, never anywhere near Wim’s, cooled. From that night scaling the roofs had really only one purpose for us: to get to 4 Torrington Gardens and into the flat without being seen by the other occupants.

We walked home a different way. The wine bar in Lauderdale Road was still open. We sat at a table outside and each had a glass of Merlot. Silver raised his, we clinked glasses and he said, “To you. To love.”

Returning in this particular direction, we entered Russia Road from the other end, the way I seldom went by day for fear of seeing Max or Selina. But by then I no longer much cared whether I saw them or not. I had Silver, I had a place to live, I had work. And I was always afraid of becoming even a little bit like poor Liv.