He pulled her back down on to the bench, holding her firm. She must not run off again. He looked at her, the grey water of her eyes, the framing of her nose and cheeks.

‘I’ll go to prison for telling you this,’ he said. ‘But I’m prepared to do it if it saves you.’

‘Saves me?’

‘Anatoly. Vasily. Whatever his name is. He’s a colonel in the GRU.’

‘A spy?’

‘They want the secrets of Blue Streak. And you are their means.’

‘Me? How?’ She shook his arm free and stood up. ‘How do you know all this? Are you working for them?’ She shook her head. ‘Or someone else?’ She flung her head back. ‘What is going on?’

John swallowed. If there was any lingering affection from her to him, it would be blown forever now.

‘They needed me to get close to him. I was their go-between, and you were mine. I’ve told you that already, but not why.’

Her eyes narrowed, and the tips of her ears blushed red. She shook her arm to free herself.

‘No, Betty, no.’ He held her hand, resisting her efforts to pull it free. ‘I met you in good faith, and I fell in love with you in good faith. But Anatoly had followed us the morning I broke off with you. Do you remember? I pulled you out of that café?’

She nodded.

‘He knows who you are. And he blackmailed me again, unless I complied.’

‘I saw him. He didn’t recognise me.’

‘He probably didn’t notice you,’ John said. ‘He knows everything about you. Where you live, where you work.’

She swallowed, searching his face. ‘Somebody rang at work,’ she said. ‘Asking if I worked there.’ Her eyes opened wide. ‘Funnily enough, the night we met, there was a man in Lyons, sitting by the door. He was wearing a coat and a hat, a trilby or fedora, pulled down low. It was just a glimpse, as I passed him, but he reminded me of Vasily. It was too ridiculous a thought, so I put it out of my mind.’ She looked up at him. ‘Now I wonder.’

‘You will know how ruthless they are,’ John said. ‘And you could be in danger.’

‘You’ve said this before,’ she said. ‘How am I in danger?’

‘It would be the simplest thing in the world for them to kidnap you,’ he said. ‘Use you to bargain with.’

She laughed out loud, too loud. He hadn’t expected that.

‘My father doesn’t give a toss about me,’ she said. ‘I doubt he’d trade.’

‘Then they’d kill you.’