‘J’arrive,’ said a waiter, taking money from a man drinking a cognac.

When he came over, Dan asked for two coffees in French and she looked away so he wouldn’t feel embarrassed.

‘It’s good to be out of that hotel,’ he said. ‘No offence.’

‘It’s OK.’

The waiter brought their coffees and they drank them. Afterwards, they left the cafe and crossed the road holding hands, like stepping into the frame of a picture. Children ran across their path, and a rack of clothes, with the person pushing it invisible. They reached the top of the square, where a long, narrow tabac and bar occupied the corner under the concrete colonnade. They started up a small street, looking for prettiness, but it soon closed in and became an alley and then barely more than a crevice. The pavements disappeared, and there were bricked-in doorways and graffiti on either side and heaps of wipes or tissues, lumping underfoot, and the smell of piss.

‘Desirable,’ said Dan, in his estate-agent voice, ‘well appointed.’

The noise of the square faded. They passed a bicycle with no wheels leaning beneath peeling posters.

‘What’s that about the beautiful villages of France?’ said Dan.

They heard running feet, yells and a clatter, and two teenage boys careered round the corner towards them, jumping into their way, wild-eyed. The boys swerved, one to each side, shoulders bouncing off the walls, and shouted and were gone.

‘Shit,’ said Dan. ‘Thought they were going to rob us.’

The alley ended in a lopsided fan-shape, with a few back doors and guttering, and the only way to carry on would be a footpath that was more like a concrete drain, downhill past a broken fence. There was a cat lying against the wall in the sun, and a plastic mop with a red handle.

‘Dead end,’ said Dan.

They looked at the closed doors and loose shutters and a balcony above a door open to a vestibule with a lino floor.

‘When I was nine,’ said Bea, ‘my parents went to the Carribean for Easter and forgot me.’

‘Nine?’

She nodded. ‘We had this Australian au pair called Jo. It wasn’t her fault, she didn’t know the housekeeper wasn’t home either, and went to visit her boyfriend. Anyway, my parents were on a plane so I couldn’t call them.’

‘Nine?’ said Dan again.

‘Yes. I went to sleep under the bed, and in the middle of the night I was woken up by a window smashing. It was unbelievably loud. I stayed under the bed, under all my teddies. And I remember seeing blue lights, flashing on the wall, from the police cars.’

‘What happened?’

‘It was Alex. It was completely fine. He was meant to be somewhere else, and he thought the house was empty. It was one of the best nights of my life.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I remember hearing him talking to the police at the door. You know, I was hiding upstairs, and he was doing the whole posh-boy, Oh yes, Officer, Alexander Adamson, thank you, Officer. And the police went away, and I came down – and I thought he was going to be angry, but he was unbelievably sweet. He let me stay up –’