Isabelle looked at Liz and raised an eyebrow.

Liz smiled. ‘Isabelle, I’ll see you in Paris on Monday. Is ten o’clock okay?’

Isabelle nodded then turned to Martin, explaining, ‘Liz is coming across for a follow-up meeting. This kind of conference is all very well, but it doesn’t give us any time for detailed discussions.’ She looked at her watch. ‘We really must be going.’

‘Goodbye, Martin,’ said Liz. Isabelle was already heading for the exit.

‘I hope you mean au revoir,’ he said with a small smile as they shook hands.

Later in the day, as the train emerged from the tunnel on the French side of the Channel, Liz looked out of the window as the countryside flashed past. This journey had become very familiar to her; she’d noticed that it was the appearance of the villages, particularly the shape of the church towers, that showed you were in another country, even before you noticed the road signs in French.

And then almost before she could blink they reached Paris. In the fresh sunlight of the spring evening it seemed to her the most beautiful city in the world. Not even the noisy jostling crowd on the platform of the Gare du Nord could sour things. And when the Metro slowed for Saint-Fargeau, her stop on the north-east outskirts of Paris, her pulse quickened at the prospect of the weekend ahead.

She crossed a busy road, then went down a side street. As she approached a now-familiar house, she saw the other tenant, Madame Beylion, come out of the front door. She was a stout, elderly lady with a face set in deceptively dour lines, for she was in fact the kindest of souls.

‘ Bonjour, Madame Beylion,’ Liz called out, much more confident speaking in French than she had formerly been.

‘Ah! Bonsoir, Madame.’ The old lady waved and smiled. ‘ Monsieur est à la maison. Il vous attend. ’

Upstairs the door opened just as Liz was about to ring the bell. ‘Telepathy,’ she said.