‘Wait and see,’ Charles said, clearly slightly irritated by my interruption. ‘Anyway, when Hitler ordered the invasion of France in mid-May 1940, the German troops simply went north into Belgium before turning west into France, outflanking the Maginot Line altogether.’

‘I still can’t see what this has to do with defeating Anton Valance.’

‘They also did something else. The French were so convinced that the Germans couldn’t possibly attack with their tanks through the dense Ardennes Forest that they didn’t even bother to defend that part of their border with Belgium, but that’s exactly where the Germans came through, simply carving new roads through the trees for their tanks to use. Just four weeks later, Paris had fallen and the Nazis were goose-stepping down the Champs Élysées.’

‘So?’

‘What I’m saying is you need to outflank Valance’s defences and then catch him off guard by doing something that he thinks is totally impossible.’

‘And what, pray, is that?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know,’ said Charles. ‘That’s for you to work out.’

Oh, thanks, I thought.

Chico and I took Rosie home from Aynsford to Nutwell just before midnight.

As we turned into my driveway, I was relieved to see that my house was still standing and not a smouldering wreck, but nevertheless I let Rosie out of the Skoda first and she wandered off towards the back door, while Chico and I remained standing on the gravel next to the car.

In a minute or two, Rosie came back as if to find out why we were taking so long. There had been no barking and no growling at any furtive visitors lurking in the undergrowth.

But Chico still spent the night sitting up in the kitchen with Charles’s shotgun close to hand, while I went to bed and lay awake for hours, trying once more to remember what it was that had rung the alarm bells in my head, and also trying to think of something I could do that Anton Valance would believe was totally impossible.

CHAPTER

26

‘YOU DIDN’T CALL me back,’ Marina said indignantly when she woke me with a call at six thirty on Monday morning.

Oh, God! So I hadn’t. With everything else going on last evening, I’d completely forgotten.

‘I am so sorry, my darling. Chico and I spent the evening with Charles at Aynsford, and it was too late to call you when we got back here.’

‘You could have at least sent me a text. I was worried about you. You might have been in a car crash or something.’

Worrying about me was good, I thought. But if she was really that concerned, she could have always called me again last night, and she hadn’t—not so good.

‘How is Charles?’ she asked.

‘He’s fine. But I think he’s missing you and Saskia.’

‘But we’ve only been gone a week.’

‘Ten days,’ I corrected.