‘And if it should turn out,’ asks Jomier, ‘that Louisa is suffering from Frycht’s anaemia, can anything be done?’

‘Five years ago,’ says Adams, ‘I would have said no, but now, yes. Hasemann in Vienna came up with a cure. It helped win him the Nobel Prize.’

Jomier and Tilly walk down stairs, into lifts and along corridors to the private wing of Chad’s Hospital. Tilly is weeping: she chokes and says in a stuttering whisper, ‘I . . . I . . . it was just something . . . in a bubble . . . nothing to do with us. It just happened . . . I mean, I thought, she could have been yours.’

Jomier says nothing. They walk along the corridor in silence. He hides the thoughts going through his head from Tilly. He hides the thoughts going through his head from himself. All thoughts but one. Finally he says: ‘She’s going to live.’

‘Yes.’

They turn a corner. Another corridor. More silence. Then, without looking at his former wife, Jomier says: ‘Did I ever tell you about my grandmother’s affair with Ferdy von Frycht?’

Tilly sniffs. ‘No. No, I don’t think so.’

‘A skeleton in the cupboard.’

‘Yes.’

‘Louisa will be amused,’ says Jomier.

‘Yes.’

‘And Henry? What do you think? A little embarrassed, perhaps, but not ill-pleased. Some blue blood in his veins on his father’s side.’

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

It is autumn. Jomier takes the 94 bus to Shepherd’s Bush. The refurbished Underground station is now open – a modernist rectangle of glass and slate. Behind it the new Westfield shopping centre sits like a gigantic spaceship from E.T. or The War of the Worlds.

Jomier gets off the bus and joins the throng going into the spaceship to trade with the Mammonites from Mars. He is looking for a gift to give to Judith on her birthday. They are no longer lovers. Their affair ended amicably in the summer. Too much baggage. Too set in their ways. But they remain good friends. No more Kama Sutra sex; no more Viagra; but movies, an Indian every now and then, and dinner together on their birthdays.

Jomier goes into Tiffany’s and spends £355 on a flower necklace in 14-karat yellow gold. To Jomier it looks like something out of a Christmas cracker but he has taken advice from his daughter-in-law Sandra and she has assured him that it will be appreciated for what it is if it comes gift-wrapped in a Tiffany box.

Jomier leaves Tiffany’s and goes deeper into the marble-floored mall to Micro Anvika where he buys a Sony 16 GB memory stick. He returns home with his purchases. He puts the gift-wrapped Tiffany box on his chest of drawers ready for his date with Judith and takes the memory stick into his study. He removes the packaging, then plugs it into the USB hub.