‘This is who we are. In 1948, there was a coup d’état and the communists took over. By 1968, we were supposed to be used to the idea that “socialist consumerism” was the way to the good life. It wasn’t the good life. It wasn’t free. Dubček tried to make the country better and to barter with Moscow. It was called the Prague Spring. He failed and the Russians sent in the tanks. We got Husák and what they called “normalization”. What that meant was persistent surveillance. It was the mud which covered everyone. I wrote a song about it. “The Discovery of Fear”.’

Disguised as a love song because of the risk, it hadn’t been Tomas’s best. It didn’t matter because it went down a storm.

It was quite a story, her time in Prague. Full of love and fear and grief. But those three things were proof that she had been alive. Electrically so. Even the consequence, the on-going inner debate with conscience and recrimination, was a kind of proof.

She rang May back. ‘If we are to continue, I think I should know more about you.’

‘Really?’ responded a startled-sounding May. ‘If I told you that my bedroom was decorated with pink rosebuds, the bed was hung with white net and had satin bows and the wooden floor was waxed weekly by the maid on her hands and knees would that help? Oh, and my full name is May Eugenie Marcia Williams and my mother is known as Miss Melia.’

Laure laughed. ‘And?’

‘I think I mentioned I was expected to marry a trust fund.’

‘I want to ask you a question,’ said Laure.

There was a perceptible hesitation. ‘Ask away.’

‘OK. May Eugenie Marcia Williams, what would you bring to the museum?’

It was May’s turn to laugh. A little uneasily. ‘I’ll think about it.’

‘If you want my cooperation, I need to know.’

‘That’s not the way it works,’ said May, sounding off balance.

‘It is with me,’ said Laure.

‘I’ll get back to you.’

‘That’s my tactic.’

The second glass of red was finished. Time to go.

Later in the week, Laure made her customary notes as she walked through the museum. The windows needed cleaning and a hinge on a cabinet was on the cusp of breaking.

Making practical decisions was a soothing activity. She liked the order that was necessary to take them. She liked the neatness of the schedules and objectives.