Norah jumped. Someone had rung her doorbell.

‘Hi Norah,’ the young blonde woman said cheerfully, when Norah opened the door.

‘Hi.’

It was the upstairs neighbour, Theresa. Norah forced a smile. ‘Is anything wrong?’ she asked, after a silence, and immediately realised how rude she sounded.

‘No. I just wanted to say hello.’

It took Norah a moment to understand that she was expecting to be asked into the flat.

‘Sorry,’ she said, ‘I’m being really unneighbourly. Would you like to come in?’

Theresa smiled and followed Norah into the living room.

‘Can I get you something to drink?’

‘That would be lovely.’

‘I’m afraid I only have tap water. Or white wine.’

‘Tap water’s great.’

Norah went into the kitchen, filled two glasses and returned to the living room.

‘How are you liking Vienna?’ Theresa asked, taking a sip of water.

‘Yeah, it’s nice,’ said Norah.

‘Where did you live before?’

‘Berlin. But—were you wanting anything?’

Theresa cleared her throat, evidently thrown by Norah’s determination to sabotage her attempt at conversation.

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘I just wanted to ask if you felt like coming up to dinner later. I’ve invited a few friends over and I thought since you’ve just moved here, it might be nice to…’

Her words tapered off.

‘That’s really sweet of you,’ said Norah, ‘but I’ve already got plans for this evening.’

‘Shame,’ said Theresa. ‘They’re a nice bunch of people. But if you like, we could do something together tomorrow.’

‘I’ve got plans for tomorrow too.’

Theresa raised her eyebrows.

‘Okay. Maybe next week?’

Norah stared at the floor.

‘To be honest, I really don’t have much time at the moment. I’ve got a lot of work and…’

An awkward silence set in.

‘Sorry,’ said Theresa. ‘I didn’t want to force myself on you.’

‘You haven’t.’

‘When I moved here, I found it really hard to get to know people, so I thought…’

‘That’s really nice of you, Theresa,’ said Norah, cutting her short. ‘It’s just…’

She faltered.

‘You don’t like me,’ said Theresa.

‘We’ve only just met. What reason could I have not to like you?’ Norah knew she sounded stilted.

‘So what’s wrong?’

Norah searched for the words. Opened her mouth. Closed it again. Started over.

‘You remind me of someone,’ she said eventually. ‘And the memory’s painful.’

8

This time it wasn’t a dream that woke her, but music and laughter from the flat above.

Norah sat up with a groan and groped for the lamp on the bedside table. Then she remembered that she’d left both lamp and bedside table in Berlin. She got up and switched on the ceiling light. A glance at her watch told her that it was soon after midnight. Was it too late to ring Max and Paul? Max had always been a bit of a night owl, often working long after everyone else had gone to bed—but, no. She couldn’t cling to them just because they were the only friends she had in the city. She was too old to carry on like that. You’ve only just got here, she told herself. You’ll soon know more people. In different circumstances she’d already have made friends with the woman upstairs. But the memories that Theresa had stirred in her were too fraught, it was all too—