She knew she was blushing. ‘I thought it would be best. I know I’ve caused you trouble. You made that clear after… you rescued me and I don’t want to do that again.’ Experimentally, she touched a swollen finger. ‘You see, I’m not giving up my right to independent thought.’

‘No,’ he agreed, a shade contemptuously.

Petr Kobes: the weak party apparatchik that Tomas considered he was? The sword and shield of the system? A family man maintaining an impossible balancing act?

How would the tally read in the future?

‘And your arrangements? The documents, etc.?’

‘I imagine there are flights? Or I could take the train which would be easier.’

‘A train. Where to? Paris? Belin? Vienna? And when?’

‘As soon as you and I have agreed,’ she improvised.

He shifted position, and she caught a whiff of superior power, of satisfaction at partial information capture, and thought: why did I say that? ‘I can’t let you go for at least a month. We need to find a replacement.’

Unwisely, she clenched her hand – and the responding intense pain drove everything else out of her mind. ‘That’s not possible. I said I’d be at my new position very soon.’

‘I see.’

Having been sensitized and irradiated by her own recently discovered responses, she heard something deeper and disturbing in his tone.

Jealousy and disappointment.

‘He was using you, Laure.’ He allowed her a moment to digest what he was saying. ‘There’s evidence. I was going to spare you but…’ He got up, went over to the bureau and extracted a folder.

‘I know Tomas.’

He pushed a photograph in front of her. ‘Did you know, then, about the American?’ She glanced down. The image was blurred but it was of Tomas with his arm around a tall blonde standing on the riverbank. ‘A nice girl. Beautiful girl. She had to be sent back home.’ He shrugged. ‘Same tactics.’

She turned her head away.

The paper scratching against her wrist was a reminder of how little she did know – and a lifetime of future doubt began its determined muster at the back of her mind.

Somehow, she must fight herself. ‘Lie to me as much as you wish. It won’t make a difference.’

‘You must know that you would never be together,’ he said. ‘There have been plenty of other women and it’s never happened.’ His words were soft and sincere. ‘He was playing you, Laure.’

She said desperately, ‘We will be together.’

‘Together? He’ll be coming with you?’

‘A slip of the tongue,’ she said.

Petr a kept the photo plumb in front of her. ‘When is the start date for your new job?’

Tomas was looking at the camera but she, the girl, was gazing at him.

Her vision misted. What? How? When?

‘When did you say?’ Petr persisted.