Before the interval, Nick’s hand crept on to mine and I shifted my weight so that my shoulder was against his. I felt him sigh. I knew he hadn’t meant to be angry. It was just surprise more than anything else. I couldn’t blame him, really, now that I knew why, and I regretted matching his anger with my own. Yes, it was annoying that he wasn’t being wholly open with me about what had been between him and her, but that was just the world we lived in nowadays.

Still, as I sat there, I couldn’t help but wonder again what had flashed through his mind when he had first seen me. Had some buried hope risen at the thought she was there in the room with him? Perhaps.

During the interval, we went to the bar to discover that the miasma of smoke it enclosed was thicker than the smog filtering in from the street. Nick forced his way forward to get served, and Charles and I waited at the back of the room. ‘Your husband is a very intelligent man,’ Charles said, as we watched Nick’s back disappear between the bodies.

‘Oh, yes,’ I replied. ‘It was what first attracted me to him.’

He tapped ash out into a glass ashtray on the table beside us. ‘I’m sure it was.’

I waited for him to say more, but he didn’t, so I tried to fill the gap. ‘How long have you worked –’

‘And now you’re wondering if you’re the right girl for him?’ I felt my face burn, and opened my mouth but couldn’t make a sound. ‘Mrs Cawson, I’m sure you are not a wicked person, I’m sure what you did this evening was an accident, but it seems to me that you and he might not be well suited,’ he added, dropping the last of a cigarette into a discarded glass, where it hissed in the liquid at the bottom. ‘Sometimes that happens.’

‘I –’

‘Where are you from?’

‘Kent. Herne Bay,’ I stammered.

‘Family?’

‘They died. TB,’ I said hoarsely.

‘I’m sorry, but we all have to live with such things. All of us. There’s a danger that when we lose a family, we try to find a new one.’

‘Charles, I’ve caused you problems, I know.’

He turned to face me. ‘You make it sound like you wasted a day of my time. I received a letter today telling me that I had to move out of my flat within two weeks. It’s being reassigned.’

How much had I set in motion? ‘Is it NatSec?’

‘I should say that’s a given, wouldn’t you?’

I had to. ‘Where will you live?’ I asked, my tongue tripping over the words.