‘Oh?’ She raised an immaculate eyebrow.

‘Bit all or nothing, me, unfortunately,’ I said, but she wasn’t interested in me, and that was how it should be. I was never the subject – that was how I preferred it; how I worked best.

‘So, why did you want to see me?’ I smiled again. She was rather like a nervous thoroughbred.

‘My father told me he was going to do an interview with you for the local paper. I want you to know the truth about him.’

I debated whether to tell her I wasn’t doing it any more. In the end, I pressed on.

‘Will you tell me about you first?’ I coaxed her gently. ‘It would help me. Why did he hate your boyfriend so much?’

‘Because he was not of his choosing.’

‘Not because he was a Muslim?’

‘Maybe once my father renounced Islam,’ she shrugged. ‘But he’s changed his views since 9/11. We all have.’

I sat up straighter. ‘Really?’

‘Everyone is so polarised today, don’t you think?’ She scratched her arm absently, trailing her fingernails up her smooth caramel skin.

‘Perhaps.’ I must not react. I must just listen.

‘We all hate the atrocities carried out in Allah’s name, of course. But that doesn’t mean anyone should have to renounce him.’

‘Of course not. So, did you grow up here?’

‘I lived in Tehran until I was five and then we had to leave. For various reasons, it wasn’t safe for us any more. I came to England and went to boarding school soon after. I didn’t see my parents for a few years. My father had angered the Ayatollah and he wasn’t allowed to leave Iran for some time, and my mother … ‘ she drank the rest of the wine in her glass, ‘my mother was busy losing her mind.’

I picked at the plate of ham that had arrived. ‘Why was that?’

‘Because my father drove her mad, I believe.’ A strange glassy smile appeared that tautened her face and never neared her eyes. ‘Because men in his family believe, like so many others of Arabic culture, that women are to be seen and to serve and ornament them, but are not to be listened to. That is like Victorian children, no? Seen and not heard.’

‘I don’t think that’s unique to Arabic men.’ I grinned at her.