We are both quiet and I long to know what he is thinking.

‘Has he behaved this way before?’

‘Yes.’ I take a deep breath. ‘And no.’

‘I wonder,’ he says before puffing his pipe. The smoke catches the thin moonlight. ‘Do you think it’s the stress?’ He releases my hand.

‘Possibly.’ I answer. It could be the cause of both.

‘I should never have brought you back in.’

‘You had no choice. You needed someone you could trust who was invisible.’

Animals scurry under the bench, rustling leaves. ‘That doesn’t make it right.’

‘You can’t live there and not be involved in some way.’ I sigh. ‘You know that.’ Even before I became the key contact for the double agent Victor, the strain of our life in Moscow had been trying for Allan and me. We couldn’t talk in the apartment. We spoke in code. Some days I think we forgot how to communicate naturally. The only normality in our life was Diana. She let none of the strictures infringe on her enjoyment of it all.

‘There’s involved and then there’s . . . putting you at risk.’

‘I’ve been at risk before.’ I put my hand on his arm.

‘Yes, but that was before – before Diana.’

I pull out my cigarette case and open it. It’s empty. I forgot to refill it earlier. ‘But this is important.’

‘I can’t argue with that.’ He sighs; locating his cigarette case, he lights one and offers it to me.

I feel rather than see him slump beside me and I think back to Aden. It had been almost carefree in those days. I was good at checking people’s personal diaries, overhearing conversations, and getting invitations into homes. ‘What’s happened?’ I ask, bracing myself. This would explain the arrival of the American, George Russell, tomorrow.

‘I’m finished.’ He taps his pipe on the seat again.

‘What?’ I try to keep my voice quiet, but the shock is hard to contain.

‘I’ve been blown.’ His voice trails away into the night air.

‘Who?’ Images flash in my mind like a slide show of faces and locations.

‘Don’t know.’

I shiver. ‘But you have an idea . . . ?’

‘You might be, too.’

‘How?’ My thoughts race through everything, everyone. Nothing appears. No one could know. I am a housewife, a mother. I do nothing.

‘As from later today, I’m no longer your handler.’

‘No.’ I have feared this from the moment I began. Tom knows me and my strengths. He is my anchor. ‘You’re not leaving me in this alone.’

‘No. The Americans are taking it over.’

I shake my head. I don’t know them. How can I trust them? Tom makes all of this easy and he always has. ‘Is Victor blown?’

‘We don’t think so, but as you know he was itchy on the last drop.’

I nod in the darkness, remembering the heat of the Moscow day and the lack of air, even in the park. Diana had been reluctant to play and even Salome, our dog, was uneasy. She hadn’t wanted the treat that Victor had offered, making things awkward, then Diana had come back. ‘Was the info still good?’