Grass-stained and grubby, they gripped each other, hard and a little frantic, the sun beating on his bent head and her raised face.

‘I wanted to do this before it all begins again,’ he said. ‘Away from everything.’

‘Do you know something?’

‘No.’ He snatched up a fistful of her hair and gently pulled her head back. ‘I’ve learnt that every moment like this has to be felt. It vanishes, of course. But, also, it can be taken away before it vanishes.’

She wondered what was bothering him. What it was he might not be telling her?

Listening to the beat of his heart, Laure held him hard against her, not wishing to move, or to think and they remained like that for a long time.

Back in Prague, he made her dismount before they reached the Kobes’ apartment. ‘I’ll take the bike and you go back. It’s best that way.’

She watched him wheeling the bikes down the street until he was out of sight.

Sometimes Laure thought she had fetched up in a Czech surrealist story.

She could not prove it, but she was convinced that she was being followed, which had a superficial thrill attached to it. On the other hand, paranoia was infectious. Why would she, the girl from Brympton, be a target?

As the days went by, she found the situation less intriguing and more sinister. The encroachment got to her. Once, she was so incensed that she whirled round and sent whoever it was a V-sign with her fingers. It was a stupid thing to do but it offered a tiny release.

She warned Tomas. ‘I think I’ve become an object of interest.’

‘Any foreigner is. It’s a condition of life here.’

‘Petr was asking questions. Talking about the Parallel Polis.’

Tomas shrugged. ‘Hardly a surprise. He’s an informer and a stooge. A weak man. He doesn’t know what’s really going on.’

He spoke with a contempt that, curiously, Laure couldn’t match. ‘I’m not sure that’s right. Petr has principles which make him strong.’

‘Ask him where his principles are when he informs on someone.’

‘You’ve got him wrong,’ she explained. ‘It’s not people he’s interested in, it’s his work at Potio Pharma.’

He placed a finger on her lips. ‘Did you know you’re very sweet?’

She nipped at his fingertip with her teeth. ‘And also right. Bear that in mind.’

‘Maybe.’

That was one of the good things about being with Tomas that she was discovering. He listened to her and, as a result, she was developing the mental resources to help her interpret the experiences that were coming her way.

They were backstage in the marionette theatre. Tomas’s arm was wrapped around Laure’s waist. ‘Did you tell him anything?’

‘Not as far as I know.’