‘What were you expecting?’ I enquired coldly as he approached. I’d forgotten just how very tall and muscular he was close to, and my back was up against the desk with nowhere to retreat to.

‘Probably not what you think,’ he said thoughtfully, ‘but I do have an interest.’

‘Oh?’ Turning casually, I laid the papers back on to the stack and repositioned the whole thing just the way I’d found it. ‘Well, I only had time to flick through, so it could take you hours to find yourself. I’ll leave you to it, shall I?’

He was staring, slightly aghast, at the huge heap. ‘Is it chronological? I didn’t expect it to be quite this big, and he might come back early today. Maybe I should just wait for it to be published, only—’

‘He refers to most people by nicknames or just a letter,’ I said helpfully, since he was still blocking my way out. ‘Shall we have a quick look at what “G” has been up to? Only I’ve seen some of your things in the spare room while I was searching, so perhaps you’d like to enlighten me about what you are afraid of finding?’

He ran his fingers through his dark hair in a strangely familiar gesture, and then suddenly gave me rather a nice smile and said, ‘Oh, what the hell! We may both be here for the same thing but for entirely different reasons, and I’m tired of pretending and having innuendoes made about me and Sergei all the time—’

But I knew what he was going to say before he said it: something about the smile, and the way it changed his face, and his airily expansive gestures.

‘Sergei’s my father,’ Grigor said. ‘He left me and my mother behind in Russia when he came here.’

‘I’d guessed,’ I told him (even though it was only by a five-second margin), then frowned. ‘So, he doesn’t want to acknowledge you?’ It seemed surprisingly ungenerous of Sergei.

‘No, I don’t want him to acknowledge me!’ he said fiercely. ‘I didn’t want to get any breaks because of who my father is. I wanted to get them because I was the best.’

He was terribly arrogant. ‘You are amazingly like Sergei really,’ I said. ‘I’m surprised I haven’t spotted it before.’

‘No, I am not like him in the least. I am now entirely British. I don’t go around like a Russian aristo in a bad old film speaking broken English, and also I am completely faithful to my girlfriend, whom I will marry when we have saved the deposit for a house.’

‘No, I see I was wrong, you’re not a bit like your father, Grigor!’

‘Please call me Greg – all my friends do.’

‘OK. Now, do you want to look some more to see if he acknowledges you in the book?’