“I have a very good memory,” she replied. Soon, they had finished their drinks and were dozing.

Stone was shaken awake at seven o’clock. “What time is our dinner table?” Rose asked.

“My ankle is bothering me,” Stone said. “Do you mind if we order from room service?”

“Not in the least.” She kissed his ankle.

“Did you find that technique for healing in a medical textbook?” he asked.

“No, I made it up. Sort of a home remedy.”

“Speaking of home, do you have an actual address and phone number?” he asked.

“Yes, I have a little flat in Ennismore Mews, in Knightsbridge.”

Stone grabbed a phone pad from the bedside table. “May I have the address and your number?” he asked, handing her the pad and a pen.

“Of course,” she said, scribbling.

Stone looked at the pad to be sure it was legible; it was. He read the address aloud, followed by the phone number.

“Didn’t I give you that before?”

“No, you left my house like a thief in the night—and with no forwarding address.”

“I apologize. Now you have it all.”

“What’s it like, performing three hysterectomies in a single day?” he asked.

She laughed. “You don’t want to know. Men are not good at receiving that sort of information. Suffice it to say that the OR staff handled everything efficiently, and so did I. The worst thing was that I had to change gowns and scrub up three times.”

“How did a doctor get involved with MI-6?” he asked.

“You already have my official denial that I am associated with such an organization,” she replied.

“Do they recruit doctors?”

“How would I know, not being privy to their practices?”

“Oh, all right. Next time I see Dame Felicity I’ll tell her I failed to worm anything out of you.”

“The next time you speak to her, don’t mention my name, or even my existence,” Rose said. “I don’t want me on her mind. I was shocked when she turned up with the col . . . sorry, the brigadier, in tow.”

“Why?”

“Because I associated him with Station Two, which is the only place I had ever encountered him.”

“Somehow, I thought you had known him before,” Stone said.

“When I arrived at Station Two I reported to him, as everyone does, but I didn’t see him again except on the ward, when he was screaming at you. The next time was at your table at Windward Hall.”

“Whom did you replace at Station Two on your locum?” Stone asked.

“That’s an odd question.”

“I somehow thought there was only one doctor there—the one who doctored my ankle.”

“The one you met. He came back from his leave a day early.”

“Why did I never see you around the station before I was in the clinic?”

“Because I was in the clinic. That was where the work was.”