Petr shrugged. ‘Many people are followed. It’s normal. We like to make sure they’re safe.’

‘Normal?’ Was she talking in a foreign language? ‘I haven’t broken any laws.’

‘Here, it’s not so such much the rule of law but the rule of men.’

Laure swallowed. ‘What are the rules?’

‘Difficult to say.’

‘That’s absurd.’

‘You’ll learn that many things in this country appear absurd.’

On this point, she was going to be stubborn. ‘But how do you know what I did?’

‘I told you. We like to make sure you’re safe.’ He sounded almost apologetic. ‘There’s one thing of which you can be certain. Beautiful young foreigners falling for rock-star dissidents end up the worse off. Rock stars, and people like them, have their own agenda.’ The subject was a little raw, not least because she had been brooding over it. But, at least, he was being tactful. ‘Those trembling new feelings, Laure, could be one-sided.’

He seemed sincere enough and she was reassured.

‘I’m anxious everything goes smoothly,’ he said.

Nothing wrong with that, she thought.

Petr traced the cartouche on the tankard with his forefinger. ‘So? His name?’

‘If you know I’ve been followed, then you will know.’ Before the words were out, she realized that, since Petr almost certainly had been informed of it, this was the wrong battle to fight. ‘Tomas Josip.’

‘That wasn’t so hard, was it? Tell me a bit more about him.’

‘I don’t know any more than you. Eva probably knows.’

There was real concern in his tone. ‘I’m responsible for you and you must look on me in loco parentis. You are under my care and I should honour that obligation. I must do so.’

Laure didn’t know what to think.

‘Did you enjoy the marionette show?’

The change of tack was a relief. ‘Loved it. The prince was… er, very charming. Before he got to the princess, he had to be rescued by a bear.’ Having just tumbled to the obvious, she paused. If the bear wore trousers embroidered with hammers and sickles, which it had… If this was Czechoslovakia, which it was… the bear represented a helpful, friendly Russia. Even if a sickle had been stuck squarely on his backside by someone at the marionette theatre with a sense of humour.

‘A bear?’

She faltered. ‘I believe so.’

‘We like our stories to be filled with witches, woods and wild animals.’ Petr gestured to the plaster figures on the wall and smiled. That simple movement of his mouth turned him from the serious employer into a teasing, charming person.

‘It was wonderful,’ she said with a rush of feeling. ‘Magic.’

He got up and laid a hand very briefly and lightly on her shoulder. ‘I can’t tell you how refreshing your response is.’