She and Linus swapped hopeful glances. It was obvious, surely? But one look at Emil’s face . . . There was a long silence, and Bell’s heart ached as his mother’s and sisters’ names didn’t fill it. Linus swallowed. ‘No, sir.’

‘Okay. And what film shall we watch? Anything you want.’

‘Anything?’ Linus queried.

‘Anything at all. New. Old.’

Linus looked overwhelmed by the seemingly unlimited scope of choice. ‘Umm . . .’

‘Hey, has the new Avengers one come out yet?’ she asked him.

‘No. September twelfth,’ he said with certainty. He took his superheroes very seriously.

‘Oh.’

‘Okay, you want to see that one?’ Emil asked.

‘Yes, sir,’ Linus said hesitantly.

‘Okay then. Avengers it is.’

‘You don’t understand. It’s not out y—’ she faltered.

He stopped her with a look. ‘It is for him.’ He looked back at Linus and gave him a wink. ‘Shall we say be ready in an hour?’

‘Yes, sir,’ Linus said uncertainly, a faint excitement blooming in the words and in his eyes. Emil smiled, somehow growing, becoming bigger before them.

‘Good. Then I’ll see you down at the dock.’

Linus bolted from the table excitedly to brush his teeth and find his shoes as Emil half glanced over his shoulder. ‘Måns?’

‘Absolutely, sir.’ And the valet slipped from the room to make the necessary arrangements.

Bell watched on. Surely he couldn’t just . . . rig up a private cinema for an unreleased film, within the hour?

Emil got up at the table, stopping just by her. ‘I assume you’ll be coming with us. Where he goes, you go, wasn’t that it?’

‘Of course.’

He nodded, the resentment in his green eyes like a cold wind upon her. She was still unforgiven for yesterday’s showdown. Unwelcome. ‘Yes. Of course.’

Docking at Sandhamn again after a couple of days on 007 was like touching down in LAX after a year in Alaska, or emerging into the Mardi Gras after a long sleep: the noises, the colours, the aromas of barbecues on the beaches . . . Everything felt dialled up to the max after the gentle, sleepy tranquillity of private island life. Midsommar was over, but the holiday fever continued – every berth in the marina was still rammed with yachts, and all the guest moorings were taken in the sound too, sails wound tightly around masts, rigging clinking in the breeze. Boats were coming and going like trains in a station, people calling across decks to one another. Holidaymakers were sashaying slowly in bikinis and flip-flops from boats to beaches and bars, joggers running in just shorts with towels tucked into their waistbands, kids choosing ice creams, locals walking their dogs or pushing wheelbarrows loaded up with pot plants, towels and the other tokens of city life that had come in with the ferries.

Emil jumped off first, reaching down for Linus and helping pull him up onto the jetty. He held a hand out for Bell too, and she managed not to react as his hand closed around her wrist.