Misery spilled over her. She couldn’t live in Kurt’s cave anymore. Couldn’t live with being excluded from everything. But what could she do? She ought to confront him about those files, but she couldn’t—he would shout her down—which meant she had no recourse other than to leave. But he would never let her go. And where would she flee, even if she could? She had nothing.

On autopilot, she walked into the visitor centre where Geraldine smiled in welcome from behind the information desk. ‘Hello, stranger. Where have you been?’

Now was the moment Miki should share everything with this kind, friendly woman, but the habit of keeping it all locked inside was too strong. She tied down her shutters and returned the smile. ‘It’s been hectic at the shop. Kurt keeps me busy.’

‘Lucky the locals are hungry,’ Geraldine jested. ‘Soon you’ll be rich.’

Miki smiled as if sharing the joke, but the irony of Geraldine’s comment was a knife in her chest.

‘How did you go with The Old Man and the Sea?’ Geraldine asked. ‘It feels like I gave it to you ages ago—shows how long it is since I’ve seen you.’

‘I loved it. But I’ve forgotten to bring it today. I’ll give it back next time I see you.’ Miki was relieved Geraldine’s book was safely hidden under the jumpers in her wardrobe. Pity she hadn’t hidden her other books too, but Kurt would have noticed.

‘Hemingway’s a great writer, isn’t he?’ Geraldine was saying. ‘One of the best. His work is deceptively simple, but everything is there. That book won him the Nobel Prize for Literature, you know. Only one hundred pages but it’s magnificent. I’ll bet it didn’t take you long to get through it.’

‘Not long. And I read it more than once.’

‘Fabulous!’ Geraldine’s eyes were squirrel-bright. ‘Tell me how it made you feel.’ She looked hopeful, as if expecting the book to chisel open some secret passage in Miki from which everything would gush out.

And it almost happened. Miki was hovering on the brink of confiding in Geraldine. She felt as if an ocean was trapped in her chest, surging to escape, but she couldn’t let go. ‘It’s about freedom,’ she managed.

Geraldine nodded encouragingly. ‘The fish is fighting for freedom, and the old man is fighting for his reputation as a fisherman—which is a kind of freedom too, isn’t it? Freedom is worth fighting for. It’s being able to choose what you think. Not being told there’s only one way.’

Miki knew Geraldine was referring to Kurt. But Geraldine didn’t know the barriers Miki faced. She couldn’t know how completely Kurt controlled everything.

‘The book is about power too,’ Geraldine went on. ‘The power shifts between the fish and the old man and back again. Does anyone win?’