It was touching that her friend was so concerned, but Alice really didn’t think a crash course in character observation was going to help at this late stage. Yes, it might make her less nervous around the people Joe was about to introduce her to, and therefore less likely to give herself away, but as far as she could see, the people down here didn’t look like hardened criminals anyway. She cast her eyes about for some shady characters, but all she noticed were people having fun. A group of nurses noisily celebrated a birthday, and onlookers cheered as first the birthday girl then other members of the group were propelled into the middle of their circle to dance. Alice couldn’t help but smile as the crowd’s excitement grew, the clapping building to a crescendo as the birthday girl’s footwork got faster in response, threatening to topple her. We could all do with a bit of cheer, Alice thought; the week’s news from Europe had been particularly disturbing. It was rumored that in Warsaw thousands of the Jewish community had been killed as they’d resisted deportation.

The dancers linked arms behind each other’s backs and twirled clockwise, bumping into one another as their feet struggled to keep pace, the musicians playing ever faster. Then the song ended, and the dancers broke apart.

“They don’t look like they’re going to cause too much trouble,” Alice commented, and downed the last of her drink.

While the band took a break, Ursula explained how to read a person’s body language, from their nervous gestures and anxious energy right down to how you should shake hands when you met them—unless your palms were sweaty, of course.

“See that one in the red dress over there?” Ursula pointed to a young woman with a female partner on the dance floor. The woman swayed and bobbed with such easy rhythm that Alice guessed she hadn’t only had one drink. When she placed her hands around her partner’s neck and kissed her, Alice shyly looked away. “She’s new to the scene,” Ursula said as she continued watching their embrace.

“What do you mean?”

Ursula explained how more and more women were experimenting; women who, in the increasing absence of men, decided to try a relationship with another woman. Of course, the Gates was the ideal place for this.

Alice didn’t ask how Ursula could tell; she wasn’t sure she was ready for the answer. But she did know that the knot in her stomach had loosened and she was actually enjoying herself; she felt just like Patricia Reece’s detective Mary Dray as she scrutinized everyone with Ursula’s help. “You’ve surprised me,” Alice told her, wishing she’d known how to do this before, as it might have been useful with Theo.

“What, twice in one week?” Ursula said, and they both laughed.