Anatoly was ruthless and John had no doubt that he would use the most brutal weapons he could to secure his goal. Of course, she had her own reasons to fear him. He should have told her tonight, but it was too long a conversation and he needed her to be calm, receptive. He owed it to her, at the very least. This would shatter her. He still had no idea where she was living, or if she had a telephone. He couldn’t ring her at work. He’d have to meet her after hours, hope it wasn’t too late. Drop her a line at the office.

He turned into Bury Place, eyes darting, scouting. There was no one there. He opened his door, wheeled his bike into the hall, propped it up against the wall and, pulling off his bicycle clips, went up to his rooms.

§

He was in the habit of buying the Times Educational Supplement. From time to time there were interesting articles, on selective versus comprehensive education, or language teaching, and he kept an eye on job vacancies, although it would need to be something like a head of department job to tempt him to move school. He tried to act as if nothing was wrong, but his sinews screamed at the strain, his limbs in free-fall. He couldn’t eat and his mind raced. He’d caught Jarvis in the third form imitating him more than once, walking down the corridor like a victim of St Vitus’s Dance, all palsied steps and jerking hands and head.

‘Listen, old boy,’ his father had said at their regular dinner at the Rag. ‘Far be it from me to pry, but you’re not yourself.’ He tapped the side of his head. ‘Take some time off. Come back to your senses.’

This new terror lay on the old one like strata in a volcano and John could see no way of stopping the final eruption, squeezed between pressure from Anatoly to betray his country and the security service to protect it, and in between, like a lava neck suppressing it all, was Betty. Bette. He yearned the loss of her, grief as wide and deep as a canyon.

He flipped the TES to the back section, turned to secondary schools. Rhayader Grammar School, established in 1793, is looking for a dynamic new head of its modern language department to replace Goronwy Davies, who is retiring after 39 years’ service. The department offers French as a first language, and German as a second…