Returning to her chair, Martha said, ‘I never tell people what to do. They come in here and talk and talk, and all I can do is help them ask the right questions, then let them decide for themselves. But it’s different with you, Lena. I have a responsibility for you. In a way you’re a child of this place as much as I am. Mary remembers looking after you when you were a baby.’

No one had spoken to Lena like this before. A pressure was building up behind her eyes and she had to force herself not to weaken.

‘Thank you, but I have to go.’

Martha sighed. ‘All right. You can work out your notice, which I think is two weeks. We’ll be having our big party on the sixteenth and we’ll need all the help we can get. My mother’s coming. And Charlotte is hoping to bring little Harriet. At least stay for the party, Lena, then you can leave at the beginning of the new year.’

On her way back to her room, Lena went into the office in Lamp Court, where she found Hans bent over some paperwork on the desk.

‘Sorry to disturb you.’

‘It’s only the rota for next week. It always gives me a headache.’

‘I need an address to send on something to Herr Heideck. You remember? The journalist. He left about ten days ago. But I found a tie in his room. It had fallen down behind the armchair.’

Glad to be disturbed, Hans pulled out a file and opened it. ‘He’s paid his bill, anyway. Here you are.’ He handed the account to Lena, who copied the Vienna address onto an envelope from the wastepaper basket.

‘Thank you, Hans.’

‘Is it true you’re leaving us?’

‘Yes. In two weeks,’ said Lena, deciding in the moment not to accept Martha’s compromise.

‘We’ll miss you. You’re a good team, you and Johanna.’

‘Maybe I’ll come back one day. As a nurse.’

‘Or a patient, more like.’

‘Very funny.’

Lena thought she should flirt a little more with Hans, so he’d forget her odd request for a visitor’s address.

She perched on the edge of his desk and said, ‘I’m going to miss you, too, Hans. Our little glasses of wine.’

‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘It takes one to know one.’

‘Dr Midwinter – Thomas – he used to give me a glass every night if I was working. Said it was good for my blood.’

‘So you’re just continuing an old tradition.’

‘Yes, and what’s your excuse?’

‘It’s a family failing. Inherited. That’s what Martha says. You remember my mother?’

‘I do. Carina. She was a … a strange lady, if you don’t mind me saying.’

‘She was a drunk.’

‘That’s putting it strongly.’

‘It’s true. I don’t know how she ever managed a day’s work here.’

‘She wasn’t the best we’ve had.’

Lena laughed. ‘I should think not. But I still loved her.’

‘Of course you did.’