She got up and squashed out the cigarette. ‘I don’t know this person. Ph! It’s so late … after one o’clock.’

‘All your fault. Real and unreal, Cuckoo in love with me, you going to turn into someone else in the morning. Crazy. Come here.’

‘I’m not! I’m not!’ She pushed herself into his arms and held him to her. ‘I’m not. It’s just that I am so happy, so terribly happy that I am afraid of things coming to spoil it.’

‘How can they? What things?’

‘That boat down there, all lit up. All those film people … they are all coming here, to the picnic … they are real. They will perhaps change. things … we will have to be different then.’

‘Why? They’re just people … coming to a picnic … ordinary people. They aren’t coming to stay, Leni … just a day.’

‘They interrupt. Like this Princess, so noisy … all laughter and gold and talking. There is a German man down there, did you know? She told me. Very handsome. A film star.’

‘Super, you can talk to him in German, can’t you?’

‘But I don’t want to! That’s the thing. I don’t want to speak German. Or to see him. I don’t want to talk with him. I don’t want to be German again, ever.’

He rolled her slowly backwards on to the bed, lying along the length of her, his hands holding her head. He kissed her hair. ‘I think he’s going to be the l’Aiglon chap, in the film, isn’t he?’

‘Yes, I think.’

‘In that beautiful white uniform, very sexy, arrogant, exciting, mysterious you said.’

‘That was you. Not him. I do not know of him.’

‘What else did the noisy Princess say about him, ummn? Secrets?’

‘No … no. Just that he is German …’

‘And blond and god-like, is that it? He is German so he must be.’

‘I don’t know. You hurt me: I do not think of him.’ She twisted suddenly under him, but he held her firm.

‘So. He is not in your mind, is that it?’

‘Not in my mind. No.’

‘A game, Leni! Pretending, umm? Let’s pretend, like those fat old men who fed you ice-cream and patted your knees and took down your stockings.’

She wrenched herself about under him, trying to turn her head away, eyes closed.

‘We’ll pretend this golden German man, all in white, which excites you, so strong, so male. Exciting, you said. Did you? Exciting.’

‘You! It was you!’