‘No, she’s spending the rest of the holidays with her father in Paris. She left this morning.’ 46

‘You’ll miss her.’

‘Of course, but she will be safer there, away from me.’

He looked more closely at her, and saw for the first time the tiredness that make-up disguised so well. ‘Are you worried that the Nazis will use her to get to you?’

‘Not the Nazis, no – they wouldn’t risk it. As I said, we are playing a game of cat and mouse. They want me too badly but I cannot afford to upset them. I need my German papers to be in order if I’m to get my American citizenship. As long as I behave, they wouldn’t dare touch Maria. But others, perhaps; others who always seem to know where I am.’ She hesitated, and Archie waited to see if she would confide in him. ‘I get so many letters, but some of them lately have been a little … well, obsessive.’

‘Anonymous, I presume?’ She nodded. ‘Can I see them?’

‘I always destroy them. I didn’t want Maria to find them and be frightened, not after last time.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘There were some kidnap threats a few years ago, when we were in California. It was just after the Lindbergh baby had been taken. You remember how hysterical everyone was?’

And with good reason, Archie thought. The son of the famous aviator had been abducted from his home in New Jersey, and although his parents had paid a huge ransom demand, the toddler’s body was found by a truck driver a couple of months later, dumped near the side of a road. ‘I don’t remember any publicity surrounding your daughter,’ he said.

‘We kept it quiet and nothing came of it. One day the letters just stopped.’ 47

‘No one was ever caught?’

‘No. These are different, though. The others were just about money.’

‘And these are targeted at you, not your daughter? And sent to you here?’

‘That’s right.’

‘Have you told the police?’

‘No. There’s nothing actually threatening about them. It’s hard to put my finger on it, but something isn’t right. He knows too much about me.’

‘Or she.’

‘Where I’m concerned, it’s usually a “he”.’ She finished her drink and lit a cigarette. ‘I’m probably being too sensitive. It’s no secret that I’m here, so why shouldn’t I get letters?’ That was true, Archie thought, although he had a feeling that she was keeping something back; someone in her position would know the difference by now between an over-zealous fan and a real threat, and she was clearly unsettled. She shrugged again, and smiled. ‘So you can understand why a castle surrounded by the sea has its attractions, and Miss St Aubyn strikes me as a very gracious host. She said in her letter that you know St Michael’s Mount?’

‘I grew up nearby, yes.’

‘You must tell me all about it on the way. What time will your car be here in the morning?’