“This has nothing to do with what I do or do not like!” he snaps, perhaps more firmly than he had intended. He takes a breath, then says again, “Nothing at all. I only urge caution.”

We fall to silence once more, and it is a quiet filled with regret and sadness. A young couple stroll by, arm in arm, with eyes only for each other. Somewhere nearby a dog barks.

A wood pigeon in the tree behind us starts to sing.

Louis says flatly, “You must love him very much.”

I cannot look at him or I shall cry.

“I am sorry, Louis. Truly, I am.”

“So am I, Lily,” he says, turning to gaze out over the roses. “So am I.”

*   *   *

Bram is early for his rendezvous with Lilith. He knew he would be, as he set off from Mangan’s house, but he is so eager to see her, so happy at the thought of being with her, he is almost light-headed with it. He could not stand a minute more pacing his old attic room, and so walked briskly through the streets to Fitzroy Square. Lilith had warned him that although the house had been cleared, the site had not yet been built upon and that it was a disturbing scene. Still he is not prepared for the impact the place has on him. The garden square remains undamaged, as does the run of houses on two sides of the square. The remainder of the houses are gone. Some, like Number One, were obliterated when the bomb fell. Others were so destabilized by the blast and the ensuing fires that they had to be taken down. Most of the rubble has been removed, but the street resembles nothing so much as an enormous open wound. The crater has been filled in, leaving only an impression of it, an indentation. Bram stands with his toes at the edge of it, wondering that anyone could have survived such devastation. Lilith told him she was in the chamber, far beneath the house, but he has since learned that few who were there that day lived through the bombing. He feels a coldness wash over him at the thought of Lilith lying crushed and trapped far below the surface, with him thousands of miles away. How terrible it would have been for her to die like that. For him to lose her like that.

“Hard to imagine there was ever a house here.”