But Anna does not want this to happen. She is scared when she sees where it’s leading. She regrets what she has said.

‘But Martin, surely this isn’t necessary!’

‘You should know best about that, since you raised the matter. I haven’t attacked you. On the contrary.’

Anna is on shaky ground. She can find no reply. This gives Martin courage. He takes a step towards her.

‘Anna, you’ve said so many outrageous things, I’m not going to listen to another word.’

She looks at him in that helpless way of hers.

‘You must forgive me,’ she says hesitantly. ‘It’s just that it was so very different from…from what I thought…what I – it proved to be different….’

He has come very close to her.

‘You can go now, Anna. I don’t want to hear another word. I’m not interested in excuses. You can go to whoever sent you!’ he ends abruptly, without knowing where this idea came from.

‘Sent me?’

‘Yes, yes. Now go. I want to work!’

He shouts at her harshly, for now he has the better of her. He’ll show her he’s not going to be ordered about.

But Anna’s voice has left her. The excitement she was in when she arrived has given way to horror at having destroyed something she had no intention of destroying. She mutters something about not having meant to – and then she is out of the door. Out into the blind and crumbling house.

Martin watches her go with relief. She won’t come and disturb his work again for a while. Why should it be so important to people to destroy someone else’s work? And that’s what it looks like. That’s what they’re all aiming at.

His conscience is pricking him slightly, but he must put up with that. She probably won’t come back for a while.

He closes the door securely and lies down to rest and collect his thoughts. When his hand touches the wall he can feel it quaking.

I must get away, he thinks. Find somewhere else to live. There must be a room somewhere where I would be left in peace.

Anna – oh, I might as well be rid of her for a while. At least until all this is is over.

He stretches out full length but cannot sleep. Must find a safer place, his brain is repeating.

Some time passes. He lives inside these walls. Never out in the passages now. Soon they will knock on his door again, so he keeps a sharp watch. He cannot tell how long it is since the last time it happened when – there it comes again. Rapid, urgent knocking.

The door is closed.

I’m not going to open it! he thinks, sitting still as a mouse. They’ll think I’m not at home and then they’ll go.

The knocking is repeated. Not the three terrible raps of the time before, but a strong commanding knocking. There’s the sound of feet on the floor as well, so it’s not just a question of a warning knock, there’s a flesh-and-blood person outside.