Page 127 of The Last Library of Paris

I nodded. ‘You two go ahead,’ I said. ‘I’m just going to finish my drink.’

Lara gave me a pointed look, but I ignored her. I let them go, then I drained my glass, and confidently headed to Archie’s cabin.

I knocked lightly at the door, half-expecting him not to answer. But he opened the door immediately and dragged me inside.

‘What the bloody hell are you doing here?’ he hissed.

‘We’re going to find Frances,’ I said. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I’m going to find Frances, of course.’ He took his hat off and threw it onto one of the narrow beds. ‘And our bloody sleeper agent, Marcus Oxley.’

‘Ah,’ I said. ‘He’s in Lisbon.’

‘Seriously?’

‘Seriously. But he’s been shot and he’s terribly ill. He managed to tell us that Frances is still in Paris. She’s hiding. It sounded like he meant she was hiding in the library, but it was hard to tell.’

‘Does Digby know you’re here?’

‘No,’ I said, rolling my eyes. ‘He forbade us to go to Paris.’

‘But you came anyway,’ Archie said.

I shrugged. ‘What else could we do? Does he know you’re here?’

He shook his head. ‘No, he warned me not to come either, but I boarded the train at the Spanish border.’

‘What Digby doesn’t know, won’t hurt him,’ I said more confidently than I felt.

‘You don’t think he’ll know by now?’ said Archie. ‘Now four of us are missing. Did Edith do your papers?’

‘Yes.’

‘She’ll tell him everything if he so much as looks in her direction,’ he said. ‘She adores Digby.’ He sighed. ‘This is bonkers, Cassie.’

‘Marta,’ I said.

He tutted. ‘Why on earth didn’t you tell me what you were planning?’

‘Because you’ve been in Spain and I had no way to contact you,’ I said, whispering angrily. ‘Because you left my flat before I was awake and I didn’t see you again. And I thought …’

Archie’s expression softened. ‘I left because I needed to act as quickly as I could.’

My heart was beating faster. ‘You weren’t avoiding me?’

Archie reached out and pushed a curl off my face. ‘Never,’ he said, rubbing my hair between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Is this a wig?’

‘Of course it’s a wig,’ I said, affronted. ‘How can you not know what my hair looks like?’

He chuckled, pulling me towards him and kissing me firmly. I sank into his embrace, as it became more urgent and then I pulled away, reluctantly.

‘I need to go back to our compartment,’ I said, gazing up at him. ‘I have all our documents, and I speak the best German. I need to be there when we cross the border.’

‘I’ll come, too,’ Archie said. ‘I can just say you asked me to join you for cards or something.’

‘All right,’ I said. ‘Douglas.’

He kissed me again. ‘You can call me Dougie,’ he said.