It was ten past three. His phone was now only good for telling the time and for shining a light in the room. He still didn’t want to go to bed. The idea of sleeping with the windows and shutters open filled him with terror. He could feel the presence of the darkness like an ink that would seep into everything. But it was too hot; you had to open everything to get even the slightest draught. He went out onto the little balcony beyond the French windows and felt the silence of thousands of hectares cut off from the world. Then the hum started up again, even louder. He kept watch. In addition to the heat, mosquitoes were buzzing all around him; when one of them came close to his ear he slapped himself and killed it. He went back into the room, taking care not to make the wooden floor creak. He sat in the old armchair so as not to wake Lise. He wanted her to sleep; it reassured him that she was sleeping. Her breathing was slow and peaceful. When she used to travel constantly for shoots and promotional tours, she had got into the habit of wearing an eye mask and earplugs. She was in a deep sleep, completely untroubled by anything. Franck could see her at the other end of the room, in the big bed. How come she wasn’t even bothered by the mosquitoes? He shone the light of his smartphone on her; she had pulled the sheet over her face, so the mosquitoes didn’t stand a chance. She had fallen asleep like that, happy in the simple setting. All evening Franck had watched her getting on with things. He couldn’t believe she was so comfortable in this rural set-up; she seemed to be in her element, though she had never lived in the countryside before.

It was 3.32 a.m. It felt as if they were floating on the dark lake of the ground floor. The downstairs doors were also open to let in the air. Above them was the attic, from where faint creaking sounds came. When they were going to bed, Lise had told him it was the heat making the beams contract, or else a barn owl – indicating that she knew what a barn owl was and wasn’t scared of them. Where did she get her composure from? She had fallen asleep to that, swallowed up by the silence of the stars. Before going to bed she had gone for a long walk around the water tank without a light, not even from her phone. It had only been a few hours and she had already stopped automatically reaching for her phone. He picked his up again and turned off airplane mode to see if by any chance there was a signal at night. He stared at the rectangle of light. Then he heard noises outside, noticeably louder than any before.