The heels on my shoes shifted in the gravel as I reached the double doors, around which a classical wooden portico wound. I took a glass of wine as I passed into a small entrance hall, then into a large room with a haze of smoke so thick that I couldn’t even see the ceiling.

Although more than half the room consisted of men in their fifties with girls in their twenties – not a pleasant sight, but one that I became used to – here and there I could see other young people milling around without attachment. Most wore masks, although there were a few army officers in dress uniform who wouldn’t have dreamed of polluting their appearance that way. A couple of Soviet naval officers were drinking in the corner. The room was alive with conversation and flirtation, but these pursuits were taking a second seat to the room’s main interest: gambling at tables set up to make a casino. It was real money being staked too, piles of it in wads of paper that were being handed to butlers in exchange for chips. Croupiers who had kept in practice since before the War dealt cards and spun roulette wheels. To my left, a plump and bow-legged man was speaking sharply to a woman who had dealt him a hand he didn’t like. Behind him, his companions were doubled up in laughter.

‘Will you be playing, ma’am?’ asked a croupier.

‘I’ll watch for now,’ I replied. I hadn’t seen so much money in the world.

‘Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen.’ Even calling people ‘ladies and gentlemen’ would have been brave outside this house. I spent a while wandering around, watching the games, attempting to discreetly engage one or two of the young women in conversation as a ploy to comprehend who exactly was here, and who might be the one I was looking for – but they were as clueless about the other guests as I was, and I suspected that they had, in fact, been hired for the evening. I received some aggressive attention from the Soviet officers, but pretended not to notice.

As I was taking another glass of wine, someone whispered in my ear, ‘Have you come out without your purse?’ I looked around to see a man at my side wearing a white mask that covered all but his mouth, making him look a little like he had been in some sort of terrible accident.

‘Yes, silly of me.’

‘Oh, dear. Well, here.’ He reached inside his jacket, pulled out a fist of paper and dropped it on a silver tray carried by a butler, who carefully flicked through, then measured out a stack of chips that my new friend indicated were to go into my hand.

‘That’s very generous of you,’ I said.

‘Jeremy. And you are?’

‘Lorelei.’

‘Well, off you go, Lorelei. Place your bet.’