“Don’t we all?” She looked up at him, trying to see his eyes in the darkness, but they were only shadows in the silhouette of his face.

“The truth,” he said, “is that I really am a security consultant. I run the firm with my partner, Niki Sakaroff-”

“Niki? That wouldn’t be Nikolai Sakaroff?”

“You’ve heard the name?” he asked, in a tone that was just a trifle too innocent.

“Former KGB?”

There was a pause. “Yes, at one time,” he said evenly. “Niki may have had connections.”

“Connections? If I recall correctly, Nikolai Sakaroff was a full colonel. And now he’s your business partner?” She laughed. “Capitalism does indeed make strange bedfellows.”

They walked a few moments in silence. She asked quietly, “Do you still do business for the CIA?”

“Did I say I did?”

“It’s not a difficult conclusion to come to. I’m very discreet, by the way. The truth is safe with me.”

“Nevertheless I refuse to be interrogated.”

She looked up at him with a smile. “Even under torture, I assume?”

Through the darkness she could see his teeth gleaming in a grin. “That depends on the type of torture. If a beautiful woman nibbles on my ear, well, I might admit to anything.”

The brick path ended at the maze. For a while, they stood contemplating that leafy wall of shadow.

“Come on, let’s go in,” she said.

“Do you know the way out?”

“We’ll see.”

She led him through the opening and they were quickly swallowed up by hedge walls. In truth, she knew every turn, every blind end, and she moved through the maze with confidence. “I could do this blindfolded,” she said.

“Did you grow up at Chetwynd?”

“In between boarding schools. I came to live with Uncle Hugh when I was eight. After Mum and Dad died.”

They rustled through the last slot in the hedge and emerged into the center. In a small clearing there was a stone bench and enough moonlight to faintly see each other’s face.