He made an angry sound in his throat. ‘Maybe she thinks I’m not cut out to be a father.’

I wanted to hug him, to make him feel better, to tell him we loved him – all of us. But he was too crazy to listen just then – I could see that even without the Smoking Mirror – and all at once I thought that it might have been a mistake to tell him like that, that I should have listened to Zozie’s advice—

Then suddenly he stood up, as if he’d come to a decision, scuffing the sign of Red Monkey Tezcatlipoca in the dust at his feet.

‘Well, I hope you all enjoyed the joke. Pity you couldn’t have made it last a bit longer – at least until I’d finished the flat—’ He pulled the filter-mask from around his neck and threw it savagely at the wall. ‘You can tell your mother I’m through. She’s safe. She’s made her choice, she can stick with it. And while you’re at it, you can tell Le Tresset that he can do his own decorating from now on. I’m off.’

‘Where?’ I said.

‘Home,’ said Roux.

‘What, back to your boat?’

‘What boat?’ he said.

‘You said you had a boat,’ I reminded him.

‘Yeah, well.’ He looked at his hands.

‘You mean you don’t have a boat?’ I said.

‘Course I do. It’s a terrific boat.’ He was looking away, and his voice was flat. I made the Smoking Mirror with my fingers, and saw his colours, all mixed up in angry reds and cynical greens, and thought – Oh, please, Roux. Just this once.

‘Where is it?’ I said.

‘Port de l’Arsenal.’

‘How come you’re there?’

‘I was just passing through.’

Well, that was another lie, I thought. It takes a long time to bring a boat upriver from the Tannes. Months, even. And you don’t just pass through Paris, either. You have to book with the Port de Plaisance. You have to pay for a mooring. And that made me wonder, if Roux had a boat, why he’d be working here for Thierry.

But if he was going to lie, I thought, then how could I tell him anything? The whole of my plan (such as it was) had been kind of based on the assumption that Roux would be really pleased to see me, and that he’d say how much he’d missed me and Maman, and how hurt he’d been to find out she was marrying Thierry, and then I’d tell him about Rosette, and he’d understand then how he couldn’t leave, and he’d live with us in the chocolaterie, so that Maman wouldn’t have to marry Thierry, and we could be a family—

Come to think of it, it sounded kind of cheesy now.