‘Tom and Louise didn’t kill anything or anybody.’

‘How d’you know?’

‘What are you suggesting now?’

‘Louise’s second child is abnormally like Tom.’

‘You repellent woman! It’s well known children take after their grandparents. Louise would never have let herself –’

‘Conceive her father’s child?’

‘That’s what I mean.’

‘You don’t know Louise.’

‘She sounds very like you.’ Hugh’s voice expressed disgust.

‘She’s very like me, very like indeed. Tom always said so.’ Matilda laughed. Hugh joined in the infection.

‘The Egyptians, the Pharoahs.’ Matilda grinned at Hugh. ‘If they did it, why not Tom and Louise?’

Hugh left the question unanswered, setting himself to opening the envelopes and counting the money.

‘How much?’ Matilda watched him.

‘Quite a lot. Enough to get away. When my brother gets back, if he ever does, he will find the cache gone. He’ll know.’

‘But he won’t tell.’

‘Money is funny stuff, it does things to people. If he is needing a couple of thousand and it’s gone, he may well be irked. So –’

‘So you’d better go.’

‘Yes.’

‘How?’

‘Like everyone else – train and plane on a busy day. Passport Control are very pushed, all those faces just become a blur.’

‘Why not a boat? One of the UFOs?’

‘That has stopped. I wouldn’t involve him anyway. I like him.’

‘What about me? I’m involved.’

‘Like you say, you’re a dead woman.’

‘And you don’t like me. Repellent, you said. Evil.’

‘Truthful. Truth may be a laughing matter but it is quite refreshing. Shall you miss me?’

‘I shall plan my picnic.’ She would not answer directly. ‘You can stay as long as you like,’ she added quickly.

‘What about Gus.’

‘I love him.’

‘That’s true, an uncomplex love to you, easy, but the poor bird’s so twisted he kills a goose when put with one.’

Matilda wasn’t listening to him. She tapped her teeth with her empty glass.

‘John, Sir Piers to be, was in this somewhere. I believe he was in on the smuggling thing. I think he and Tom worked together or Tom worked for him. I had the impression in London that he was trying to find out if I knew. No, that’s not right; I have the impression now. He said he was meeting you in Prague.’

‘What did you say?’

‘I pretended to believe him, played along. I didn’t exactly want to tell him you were here. He’s sinister.’

‘Maybe my brother is one of his minions infiltrating the Guerillas or some ploy of that kind. They train in Prague.’

Matilda stood up suddenly, startling Folly. ‘All I really mind,’ she said bitterly, ‘is being left out. I feel such a fool left out of the fun.’

‘Hurt pride.’

‘Of course my pride’s hurt, battered.’

Hugh said nothing, finding no word of comfort.