Mamma. Horst. Langerdorf. The same. All the same. Why am I different? Why am I Leni Minx? Someone tell me … tell me. Across the lawns Marcus at his table, laughing.

A wrench of need.

He is real. The carnival all around me, the holiday, these are unreal. Real, unreal mixed together.

Oh Marcus! Marcus. Sitting there straight back towards me, small buttocks as you squat, arm sweeping wide in joyous explanation. What are you telling them? I can’t share … Minerva laughing, hands pressed to mouth, the Bamboo Hat wagging from side to side, jade flashing; the old Duc smiling, smiling, opaline eyes dull in the light, prodding the grass with a slender ebony stick.

The stork. The stork prodding quietly in the sedge of the Schwarzbrücke, high green barley bending in the wind, apple-stumps like tossed broom-heads. The Wall.

Wolf threading his way towards me, a tray of wine and fruit balanced in his hand with the assurance of his calling. Assure me, assure me …

Luise moved into the shadows as Leni reached up to help him with his tray.

The afternoon was fully occupied by a Treasure Hunt which Cuckoo had planned, which meant that the whole picnic became wonderfully confused and mixed up, with everyone scurrying about in search of the clues which had been planted the evening before, and it was not until the end, when the prizes had been found, the signal that the splendid picnic was officially over, that she came into contact with him again and told him that after she had gone to speed the departing guests, with Marcus and Cuckoo at the front door, she would meet him by the pool where they could swim and relax and sit in the sun after the exertions of the day, for she hoped he’s stay to supper?

‘Well,’ said Cuckoo, as the last car went up the steep curve of the drive to the road. ‘That’s that. All done! All over. And I think a success. Anyway it felt like one to me … did it to you?’

‘Terrific!’ and Marcus. ‘Really smashing.’

‘And so were you both, “really smashing”! Everybody said so. Thank you both a thousand times. Now, I must go and tell Bruna only eight for supper, because nice Signore Bell-whatever-his-name-is and Signore Grottorosso have left … so that makes it simpler, and it’s only leftovers from today anyway, but I must go and tell her, she gets into such a fuss … and then I shall have a little lie down on my bed for an hour. A tiny bit weary I am. A full day. Do admit?’

‘You’ve been overdoing things, old dear,’ said Archie. ‘You really shouldn’t …’

She flashed him a spark of irritation. ‘Nonsense! Never felt better. Such a happy day but a lot of chatter … my head’s spinning with the noise.’

‘At the pool. We’ll be down there,’ said Marcus. ‘What you need is a swim, go and get your costume, be a sport. I must sober up. We’ll all have a swim, Sylva is waiting.’