‘That’s in the past now,’ Kate said, with a confidence she didn’t entirely feel. ‘And now we all get to shape the future we want. So I’m asking you to trust me.’

Fiona and Gus gazed up at her, and Kate felt a surge of emotion as she saw in their eyes that they did. Trust her. Implicitly. She looked at each of her family in turn. ‘All right,’ she said. ‘Deal. We play these bastards at their own game – and end up with everything we want.’ She stood. ‘But right now, I need more coffee.’

She went into the house, accompanied by the faintest whisper that, in the world to which she had devoted so much of her life, fairy tales very rarely came true.

5

‘I CAN’T BELIEVE you didn’t fucking call me!’ Julie burst back into Kate’s life the same way she had left it: like a whirlwind.

Shirley Grove had rented them a flat that occupied the top two floors of a handsome stucco building in Cambridge Street, Pimlico. It was close enough, as she put it, to tap back into SIS headquarters or any other part of Whitehall, but sufficiently out of the way to reduce the risk of being seen coming and going.

Kate had just sent the surprisingly stoic Grove out to buy a Nespresso machine and enough Oatly Barista milk to withstand a siege – a dubious addiction she’d acquired from Fiona.

The flat had two bedrooms, which had been hastily converted into offices, and an airy kitchen, living and dining area, with French windows that opened on to a tiny balcony overlooking the street. Julie threw herself down on to a pastel sofa bathed in the morning sunlight. She’d applied barely any make-up, or given her tumbling auburn hair more than a cursory brush, but she looked more beautiful than ever. She wore a ripped brown suede jacket with black jeans and, as she shook out her hair and her tight white T-shirt rode up, Kate spotted a new tattoo of a small dolphin just above her waistband.

‘Are you going to tell me what all this I’ll-explain-when-I-see-you business is about?’ Julie glanced around the room. ‘Ah, I get it. You’re about to suggest we move in together.’ She gave her a mischievous grin. ‘I knew you fancied me.’

Julie’s standard operating principle was that everyone found her attractive. She wasn’t often wrong.

‘Don’t flatter yourself. I have a job for you.’

Julie’s smile faded. She sat up, then stood. ‘I do not like the sound of that. Mind if I smoke?’

‘On the balcony.’

Julie stepped out into the sunshine. Kate joined her, leaning back against the doorframe. Julie offered her the pack. Kate shook her head. ‘Come on,’ Julie urged.

‘I’ve quit. Sort of.’

‘Which I’m guessing is going to be the theme of this conversation.’

‘I need your help,’ Kate said. ‘But I want you to know you can refuse.’

‘You know I’m not going to.’

‘I was in France with Stuart, trying to patch our lives back together, when I received a surprise guest in the form of the prime minister and his lugubrious sidekick, Shirley Grove.’