“Oh?” I lift my eyes. “It will be interesting to hear how things are going over there. I’m glad that there are people who have enough conviction to actually do something.”

“Yes. Terrible, all these fascists. Not the thing at all,” Leo agrees fervently, and I smile faintly. “Though I’m not sure about these young people getting tangled up in things that don’t concern them.”

“Oh! If I were a man, then that’s where I’d be,” I say with certainty.

Leo looks vaguely horrified by this statement.

“But who are they?” Hero asks, regaining his attention. “You said they were old friends.”

“Daresay you might not remember them,” Leo says, “but you met them years ago when we, ah, lived in Italy. Artist chaps.”

The book drops from my nerveless fingers and hits the floor with a thud. I bend to pick it up, hoping to conceal my confusion.

“Klaus?” Hero squeals delighted.

“That’s the fellow.” Leo beams. “And another.” He consults the telegraph.

“Signor Benedick, perhaps,” I say, my voice perfectly calm.

“Ben!” Leo exclaims. “That’s it. They’ll be here any minute as it happens. Seems the boy at the post office took his time about bringing this over.”

With comedic promptness, a horn sounds outside. “Ah!” Leo jumps to his feet. “Here already.” And he leads the way through the house towards the front door and the crunching gravel driveway, Hero and I following behind.

From the shadow of the doorway, I watch as the doors on the two cars open and several men spill out. Among them I spy Klaus, still dashingly handsome, though his face is more serious than I remember, and then – the last to emerge – there is Ben.

My heart is thumping so loudly that I can’t hear what they are saying. I study Ben closely. The golden hair, the clear blue eyes crinkling in laughter. He seems taller than in my memories and he’s definitely thinner. His face is tanned, his clothes – even by his standards – are exceedingly worn. There is something different about his face – it has sharpened. A man’s face, perhaps, not a boy’s. He’s saying something now, something that makes them all laugh, before he is cut off by Hero flinging herself down the steps and into Klaus’s arms.

I step into the sunshine. “I wonder why you’re still talking, Ben,” I say, proud that my voice contains not a single tremor of emotion. “It seems nobody is listening.”

His eyes snap up to meet mine and it’s as if the past four years fall away in an instant. “Hello, Bea,” he says softly, moving towards me. “Why so disdainful?” The look he gives me is a challenge.

“Why not?” I ask, lightly. “When there’s so much to be disdainful of.” I run my eyes lazily over his body, finally meeting his gaze.