In the end I managed to get her uniform off entirely. And by then we were horizontal on the two beds. In the low light of a small lamp her skin was gold. I explored the surface of her body, marking first the peripheral points and then exploring important sites in the interior. For her part she was doing something similar. We got up to all kinds of things in all kinds of different and interesting positions. It was like we were effortlessly tumbling down a slide of mutual sensation. After a while the light went off and it was all texture, smell, sound, but no visuals. Except for the shapes and things that we saw in the dark. If it was possible to top the last time, we did it.

Until we fell asleep.

I slept for a couple of hours and then opened my eyes. Wide awake and restless. Nazari purred softly beside me. I slipped out of bed and pulled my clothes on. I needed to be outside. I felt closed in. I felt like I needed a prowl. I figured, maybe a tour of the perimeter. Get into the trees a little and feel the dirt under my feet.

I retrieved one of the Berettas from the bag and stuck it in my waistband at the back.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The big house wasn’t silent. It made all kinds of little night time noises. Once in a while there was a gurgle. Wood joints creaked together. The house was speaking, in its way. I crept through it on my bare feet, listening to what Brumaire had to say. Either Madame Vaugeois or Maria had locked the front door. They’d left the key hanging from the inside, so I was able to open it with minimal fuss. I stepped out.

The night air was cool on the terrace and there was enough light to see the open spaces pretty well. Night animals had gone quiet and I waited for them to pick up again.

When the low hooting of an owl and the scraping of a million insect wings resumed, I padded down the terrace stairs and onto grass, which was cool and damp beneath my bare feet. I started with the cliff side, creeping between the house and the limestone face. Then I cleared the corner and looked out in the dark towards the end of the walled garden and the place where the path broke towards the river.

I explored the far end of the garden and prowled close to a wood pile. The forest looked back at me, dark and unknowable. The dark and the dirt made me feel free and easy. The smell of the forest and the outdoors was good. So I looked into the night and put my mind into another gear.

Tactical thinking. Defense in depth.