‘He said he wanted to spend some time together. He doesn’t like all these nights in your room. He said I turn into a different person. Do you think I do?’ She didn’t give me time to answer. ‘I saw him once, watching Franz and Walter. He looked at them as if they were little boys, when really they were just enjoying themselves. Sometimes he’s so grown-up it’s boring as hell. I just want to have a little fun, and he makes me feel bad about it.’

Charlotte went out onto the balcony and I followed. We watched the rain brightening the night, settling to freeze on the snow. ‘Jenö has a theory that Walter threw that glass on purpose.’

‘Why would he do that?’

‘To get Jenö out of the room. So that he could give me the cocaine.’

‘Again, why would he do that?’

Charlotte craned her neck to see where it had landed, then she looked up to Walter’s balcony and shook her head. ‘Did you see whether Walter checked the ground first?’

‘Why?’

‘Because if he checked that means he threw it on purpose. That would mean it was part of a plan, rather than an accident.’

‘I’d gone all faint. The blood, remember?’

‘Ah yes,’ she said, ‘it’s always the faint.’

‘Look, Jenö’s getting fretful over nothing.’

‘Sometimes I think that. Other times I think he might be right; Walter knew the cocaine would separate us.’

‘Otti and Anni are worried,’ I said. ‘They say we should stop, that the Director will start to notice our whereabouts.’

‘They’re probably right. It just helps. Things with Jenö aren’t so good.’ Charlotte rubbed her face. ‘I don’t know. Walter’s always been a mystery to me. I’ve never known how to be around him. Even when Jenö and I weren’t together.’

Below us two men walked out from the Bauhaus gates. Under the umbrella you could see Oskar’s uniform. I wondered where they were headed. Nowhere would be open.

‘Paul, you didn’t tell me the man was a Nazi!’

‘No one’s not a Nazi in Dessau these days.’

When the rain started to drive in we went back into my room. Charlotte looked around, wondering what to do. It must have been very late; it was after midnight when I’d left Walter’s room. I picked up my book. It wasn’t unusual for us to ignore each other like this, when we wanted company but didn’t want to talk. These nights could be hard on my heart. They were like nights spent between an old married couple.