Her coffee made, she went back to her room and settled herself at her desk. She was just finding the thread of Lord Denning’s argument in the case that she was reading when Angie appeared at the door. She had washed her face and there was no trace of her upset apart from maybe a little puffiness around her eyes. Maggie assumed she was going to tell her something about not being home for dinner or some other domestic banality but instead she met her gaze and said,
‘About before. Thanks, Mags.’
There was something in her tone and the simplicity of what she said that made Maggie feel that something had shifted, some door had been unlocked between them. It was as if they now shared a secret that drew them to one another in a way that they hadn’t been before. The idea made her feel surprisingly warm inside.
‘You’re welcome,’ she replied with a smile.
14
They were enjoying a lazy Saturday morning, Maggie sorting out her notes from the previous week at the kitchen table and Leon reading a magazine. A pot of lukewarm coffee sat between them with an empty bottle of milk and a half-eaten bowl of cornflakes, none of which Maggie had felt the need to clear away.
Tiger sauntered into the kitchen, fully dressed, which was unusual for that time of day. He moved about the room collecting his things with a surprising sense of purpose as Maggie watched, curious about what had prompted the tidy-up but also enjoying having an excuse to focus her attention on him without feeling awkward.
‘I’ll be getting out of your hair tomorrow,’ he said as he unhooked his denim jacket from the back of a chair.
Maggie’s heart jolted. The duration of Tiger’s visit had been characteristically vague, with none of them, including Tiger himself, being quite sure how long he intended to stay. Having overcome her initial wobble at his arrival, she had got used to having him around and felt sure that they were still building up to something, slowly but steadily.
But now, he was leaving, and so soon. Panic flooded through her. She wasn’t sure what she’d been hoping for, but she had expected that there’d be more time for the situation to play itself out.
‘I’ve got a coach booked down to Dover tomorrow,’ Tiger continued, ‘and then I’m heading to St Petersburg.’
‘St Petersburg, as in the Soviet Union?’ clarified Leon, looking up from his copy of New Musical Express and staring at Tiger open-mouthed. ‘I thought we couldn’t get beyond the Iron Curtain. Won’t they just chuck you in a gulag and leave you to rot?’
‘Only in spy novels, mate,’ said Tiger. ‘It’s pretty safe to travel there as long as you don’t do anything stupid. They watch you like a hawk, and you can’t really wander about on your own, but you can go and see. So, I’m catching a train from Paris on Monday night.’
‘What’s this?’ asked Angie, wandering in in an oversized Choose Life T-shirt that had gone a bit grey in the wash and a pair of baggy leggings, her auburn hair tied back with one of Leon’s socks. She had clearly only just got up.
‘Tiger’s leaving us,’ said Leon. ‘Tomorrow.’
Angie crossed the room and threw her arms around Tiger. ‘Oh mate, that’s a bugger. I’ll miss you,’ she said. ‘Where are you going?’
‘St Petersburg,’ replied Tiger.
‘Cool,’ said Angie. ‘Well, we’d better have a send-off party tonight then. Give you something to think about when you’re freezing your bits off in Siberia.’
‘St Petersburg is nowhere near Siberia,’ said Leon. ‘God, Angie, didn’t they teach you anything at school?’
Angie swallowed and Maggie thought of their conversation about her childhood. She wondered how often she got caught out like this, holes in her education exposed. Then again, the geography of the Soviet Union wasn’t Maggie’s specialist subject either.
Angie recovered quickly enough. ‘Absolutely nothing, Leon mate. I know nada, rien, nichts, niets,’ she said wryly.
Maggie noticed that as usual, Angie seemed to have decided to throw a party without any consultation with the rest of them, but for once she didn’t mind. It might be exactly what she and Tiger needed to finally decide where they stood.
‘A party, great idea,’ she said enthusiastically.
Leon gave her a sideways glance, as if he didn’t quite believe what he’d just heard.
‘Just us, or shall we invite a few people over?’ asked Angie.
Maggie, who didn’t have a few people to invite over, would rather that it was just the four of them, but she could see the advantage of a houseful. It would give her and Tiger more opportunity to make themselves scarce without drawing any attention.