‘I’ve done with all that,’ he said harshly. ‘They can get on without me.’

‘Ah, this is the bit where you sulk.’

‘What?’

‘During the Trojan war Achilles was in love with this girl. She actually came from the other side, and was his prisoner, but they made him give her back, so he withdrew from the battle and sulked in his tent. But in the end he came out and started fighting again. Only he ended up dead. As you could have done on that ledge.’

‘I told you I wasn’t planning to die, although frankly it doesn’t seem important one way or the other. I’ll take what comes.’

‘Did she do something very cruel?’ Petra asked gently.

In the dim light she could barely see the look he turned on her, but she sensed that it was terrible. His eyes were harsh and cold in the gloom, warning her that she’d trespassed on sacred ground.

‘Stop now!’ howled the Furies. ‘Run for your life before he strikes you dead.’

But that wasn’t her way.

‘She?’ he asked in a voice that warned her.

She laid a gentle hand on his arm, whispering, ‘I’m sorry. Shouldn’t I have said that?’

He rose sharply and strode back to the gap in the glass wall and stood gazing out into the night. She followed cautiously.

‘She made me trust her,’ he whispered.

‘But sometimes it’s right to trust.’

‘No,’ he insisted. ‘Nobody is ever as good as you think they are, and sooner or later the truth is always there. The more you trust someone, the worse it is when they betray you. Better to have no illusions, and be strong.’

‘But that would be terrible, never to believe in anything, never to love or hope, never be really happy-’

‘Never to be wretched,’ he said harshly.

‘Never to be alive,’ she said with gentle urgency. ‘It would be a living death, can’t you see that? You’d escape suffering, but you’d also lose everything that makes life worth living.’