‘I spent most of yesterday combing through Ian’s personnel and vetting files,’ Kate went on. ‘And while they don’t provide any proof of anything, I found myself struck by the way his career changed course after that period in New York.’ Kate thought it best to leave out Natasha Demidova’s intelligence that Dante had been recruited in America during this period.

‘Did it?’ Celia asked.

‘I think so. Before then, he was just another clever Oxford recruit. There was little to mark him out as a potential future chief. But after New York, he did a year on the Russia Desk – at his own request – and then you went to Chile, where he pulled off a significant coup that effectively made his career.’

‘Did he?’

‘He didn’t give you any indication of the success he had achieved in Santiago?’

‘Ian never talked about his work.’ She smiled at Julie once more. ‘It was the perfect way to hide less wholesome secrets.’

‘The work he did in Chile appears to have been very significant. He gave you no hint his assignment had gone well?’

‘None.’

Kate found this confusing. Ian seemed so prone to preening boastfulness that she found it difficult to imagine him keeping this potential career triumph from his wife, unless he had no longer felt the need to impress her.

‘Look, I’ll save you the trouble here. Ian is not your Russian spy.’

‘With respect, Mrs Granger, I don’t think you can know—’

‘I can.’ She nodded with boundless confidence. ‘I’m not an expert in your world, it’s true – thank God – but I know enough about human nature to be certain that betraying your country in any circumstances at any time is an enormous step that requires a certain kind of courage, which I can absolutely assure you Ian does not possess. He’s clever, yes, insecure, definitely, and that makes him susceptible to the attention and flattery of others in ways I don’t need to describe to you, but the idea of disgrace and even prison would so terrify him as to make the idea of him taking such a step inconceivable.’

Julie was nodding.

‘You see,’ Celia went on, pointing at her, ‘even the lovely young Miss Carmichael here agrees with me. And she should know.’ Julie’s face coloured immediately.

‘With the greatest respect, Mrs Granger …’ Kate said.

Celia raised a hand. ‘It’s Celia, please. And I know what you’re about to suggest – no doubt in your customarily diplomatic way. Perhaps a wronged wife is not the best person to lecture the world on her former husband’s secret life.’

‘I wasn’t going to put it quite like that.’

‘I bet. But I’m sure you’re wondering if I was aware of my husband’s many affairs?’

Julie was staring at the floor, as if hoping it would swallow her.

‘It did occur to us,’ Kate said tactfully.

‘The answer is complicated, as they normally are, I’m afraid – and currently the subject of many hours of extremely expensive therapy. There is a difference between what your eyes may see and what your mind is willing to accept, a gap explained by your own past.’