It takes another half an hour to reach the centre of Athens, and Zoë has to guide Lieutenant Collyer to the hotel on Patission Street where General Wilson has set up his headquarters. The city feels, not deserted, but haunted, and Zoë keeps the heavy army coat tucked around her, even though the day is warm. Fear is hanging in the air like freezing mist. Trams are still rattling along Patission, though they are mostly empty. Soldiers are running in and out of the hotel, loading boxes onto trucks.

‘Hope I’m not too late,’ Lieutenant Collyer mutters, parking the car behind one of the trucks. He looks up at the white facade. ‘Looks quite posh. I wish I could buy you a drink, Miss Valavani. But we live in unhappy times, so I think you’d better wait here. I shouldn’t be gone long.’

Zoë spends a few minutes in the back of the car, but she doesn’t like the way the soldiers keep looking at her, so she gets out and limps across the street to the trees in front of the polytechnic. It takes four cigarettes, smoked slowly, leaning against a eucalyptus tree in the shadow of a shuttered kiosk, for the lieutenant to reappear. As each one is finished, she leans, breathing raggedly, thinking that in a moment she will turn and walk away, down to Omonia Square and the metro station. Let the earth swallow her up. But each time she opens the packet, runs her finger across the silly blonde head of Zozo Dalmas. And finally the lieutenant comes jogging briskly down the steps, his cap under his arm. She watches him from across the wide, empty boulevard, sees him stop short when he finds the car empty. He stands with his hand on the door, his shoulders drooping, then he drags his hand across his face. Ridiculous Englishman. Skinny boy with silly cut-off trousers and burnt legs. ‘I can pretend I’m your chauffeur.’ Before she knows what she’s done she has stepped out from under the tree, out into the street. She doesn’t know why. Because she’s alone? Because it is a long walk back to Kokkinia? And then he sees her, and smiles, walks around the car and opens the door for her. ‘Sorry about that. Took much longer than I thought. Complete waste of time as well. Now let me take you home. I have to go to Piraeus …’

‘But I live in Piraeus!’

‘Fantastic. I need to scrounge up some petrol on the docks. If you tell me how to get there, I’ll drop you off first.’

She settles into the seat beside him. ‘My chauffeur.’