‘I have some time tomorrow before dinner. At about six.’

‘Will you bring them to the library?’

‘No! I don’t want other people to see them. I could take them to the stable yard.’

‘You’re very modest. But all right. Let’s hope it’s not raining.’

He turned towards the front door.

‘Where are you going?’

Lena had not meant her thought to escape her in words, but Anton seemed to see nothing odd in the question. ‘For a walk round the lawns to clear my head of all the stuff I’ve just been going through in there. Then back to the archive, I expect. And then some more writing.’

‘Haven’t you finished your article yet?’

‘Not quite. I need to make another telephone call or two. To Dr Rebière for one.’

‘Will you go down to the lake on your walk?’

‘I wasn’t expecting to go that far. But I could. Why?’

‘Maybe we should meet there tomorrow.’

‘By the lake?’

‘Yes. Not the stables. The lake. I think that would be … better.’

‘Lake it is.’ He smiled at her as he closed the front door behind him.

That afternoon, when she was making her way over to the laundry with Johanna, she heard her name called and turned back to see Martha outside the entrance to the North Hall.

‘Could you come to my office for a moment, Lena?’ she said.

Lena wiped her hands down the front of her uniform and, after exchanging glances with Johanna, followed Martha to the main house. Although their teatime meetings had continued, she had never been summoned in this way before and she tried to see in Martha’s walk whether there was some unusual anger, or bad news on its way.

In the office, she took her place on the chair opposite the desk, behind which Martha was looking at her over the top of her glasses.

‘Is everything all right, Lena?’

‘Yes, thank you. Very good.’

‘You’re feeling quite well?’

‘I feel very well, Fräulein. Very happy.’

‘Good. You’re a good worker and you’re popular with the others. But there’s something I need to talk to you about. Wine.’

Lena felt as though she was falling, even though the chair was hard beneath her. Her palms and inner arms thrummed and there seemed to be a void where her belly had been.

‘Do you know what I’m talking about?’ said Martha.

Not knowing what to do, Lena lowered her head. She wanted these sensations to be over, even if it meant the end of the life she had made. She would take any punishment to stop this sense of falling.

‘Lena?’

‘Wine?’

‘One of the cleaners discovered some bottles behind the wardrobe in your room.’

‘Cleaners?’

‘You know we have some men in from a company in town. To do a complete spring clean.’

‘Oh.’

‘Did you take them from the kitchen?’

‘Don’t be angry.’

‘Not if you tell me the truth.’

‘No one wanted them.’

‘How long?’

‘Perhaps a year. Or two years. I’ve only taken …’ She trailed off, not wanting to make it seem as if she were justifying the theft.