Now it was the middle of April, just over three months since he’d left Copenhagen, and he’d been hiding in the stinking outhouse in the alley behind Hanne’s flat for nearly two days. He’d arrived there at noon on a warm Wednesday, and now it was a few minutes past seven on the Friday morning, and in all that time no black cat had appeared in the window of Hanne’s apartment.

As far as he could tell, there’d been no other sign of life from her home: not a flicker of light, no movement. He’d stayed awake all last night, propped just inside the doorway of the outhouse, the door positioned so it shielded him but allowed him a view of the window. At least that gave him some relief from the overpowering stench from the rubbish bins. On the first afternoon, he’d raided the bins for food of some kind and selected some stale slices of bread and a few discarded boiled potatoes. He thought that would be safe enough, but later he was violently sick. As darkness fell, it became apparent that he shared his outhouse with an extended family of rats, one of those families that kept themselves busy all the time and didn’t believe in quiet nights in.

It was clear he couldn’t go back to the apartment. She’d suggested he try to get to Sweden, but he was exhausted and had no money and no papers, and he had little doubt now that his fever was typhus, which was hardly surprising given that so many people around him for the past couple of months had been suffering from it. That he’d managed to get back to Copenhagen was little short of a miracle.

He crawled to the back of the outhouse, kicked a rat off the piece of flea-ridden carpet he’d retrieved from a bin and slumped down. At least he’d not vomited for a few hours now. Another rat peered at him with ill-disguised curiosity from under a bin. He recognised it as Adolf, so named because of a black patch under its nose.

As well as being ill and exhausted, he was also having to come to terms with the realisation that something awful must have happened to Hanne. It was a terrible shock, which had hit him like a sledgehammer. He’d regarded her as such a clever and resourceful person, he’d assumed she’d rise above any situation.

And now he realised quite how much he loved her.