Li halted, beside them, and said: ‘It is a large building. This could be a home for many people.’
‘It was, in the past,’ scored Snow, immediately, careless of the tremor that visibly passed through Father Robertson.
‘That was a use of words that I don’t quite understand,’ complained Li.
Snow didn’t believe the protest. Before Snow could respond, however, Father Robertson said: ‘It is no longer used for worship! The government has agreed it can remain as it is, though.’
‘Yes,’ said Li, as if already aware. Looking directly at Snow, he said: ‘You worship here?’
‘I do,’ confirmed Snow, at once. ‘There is no official restriction upon our doing that.’
‘Quite so,’ agreed Li, again as if he already knew.
‘Is there anything else you would like to see?’ invited Snow.
‘Is there anything else I should see?’
Snow gestured around the vaulted building. ‘This is what there is. All there is.’
‘Thank you, for giving me so much of your time.’
‘You gave me so much of yours,’ said Snow, conscious of Father Robertson’s head swivelling worriedly back and forth again.
‘You won’t forget the photographs?’
‘I would not expect to hear back very quickly.’
‘It is not difficult for me to call.’ To Father Robertson, Li said: ‘I will probably see you again then?’
‘Yes,’ The quaver was scarcely noticeable.
Pointedly Snow said: ‘The front door of the church is permanently locked. I will guide you out the way we came in.’
Li fell into step with the priest without any attempt at conversation: at a turning, Snow saw Father Robertson at a hesitating distance. The chief of mission was hovering in the office corridor when Snow came back from the street exit, one hand clasped over the other.
‘What photographs?’ the white-haired man demanded once more.
‘Ordinary tourist photographs.’ Snow was not alarmed by Li’s visit, but for the first time he was prepared to admit, to himself, that the man’s interest was going beyond that of a normal tour escort: he didn’t want an additional inquisition from his superior.
‘Your trip has offended them! We’re under scrutiny.’
‘Which will discover what?’
‘I don’t want the mission closed down!’
‘The mission is closed down!’ said Snow, in renewed annoyance.
‘We’re permitted to remain here.’
‘As what? It’s surprising we’re not officially part of group tours, as another aspect of Chinese history.’
‘A Jesuit mission exists as long as we are a presence here!’
‘We’re a joke!’ insisted Snow, utterly careless of letting the anger show. Careless, too, of upsetting the old man: welcoming, in fact, a target at which to direct some of the pent-up frustration.
Father Robertson winced, as if there had been a physical blow. ‘God’s work is not a joke.’
‘We are not doing God’s work!’ persisted Snow.
‘We are doing what we are told to do, by the Curia.’
What was the point of any discussion with this man? ‘There is nothing here that can cause any official difficulty. We both know that. The man is a busybody: that is all. I will get him his photographs. And that will be the end of it.’
‘I have personal experience of how they think!’
‘The Cultural Revolution is over!’
‘The official mentality is the same. I shall have to make an official report, to Rome. We should advise the embassy, as well.’
And Snow supposed he would after all have to tell Walter Foster: it was becoming difficult any more even to think of the journey through the southern and eastern provinces as a success.
‘We were sorry you didn’t manage to come last month.’
Charlie didn’t doubt the matron, whose name was Hewlett, had positioned herself at the door of her office to intercept his arrival. ‘Pressure of business, I’m afraid.’
‘She does so much look forward to personal visits, you know? Particularly now she is maintaining this improvement.’
‘I’11 come as often as I can.’
‘As long as you do,’ said the matron, bossily.
On his way back to London Charlie realized he hadn’t tried to confirm his inference of what Julia Robb had conveyed about Miller and Patricia Elder. Perhaps he would have time before he was assigned a new apprentice.
Seventeen
Patricia Elder used Miller’s discarded shirt as a dressing-gown to make the breakfast coffee, naked beneath. The apartment, the entire top floor of a period mansion on the edge of Regent’s Park, was owned by Miller’s wife and she used it when she came up from the country, so Patricia never kept any of her clothes there. The programme and ticket stubs for the previous night’s opera at Covent Garden were on the hall table, ready to be taken and disposed of when they left. So was the after-theatre dinner bill for two.
The breakfast alcove was in the bay of the window overlooking the park. Miller was already at the table, dressed apart from his jacket, when Patricia came in from the kitchen. ‘Do you want anything to eat?’
The Director-General looked up from his newspaper, shaking his head. ‘Last night’s got a bad review. I’ve certainly seen better performances. Glyndebourne, for instance.’
‘I wasn’t with you at Glyndebourne,’ reminded Patricia, pointedly. As with everything else, they took great care where to be together in public. It was at Miller’s insistence, not hers.
‘Believe me, it was better,’ he insisted, looking directly at her, guessing the mood in which she had awoken. His impression was that they had lately become more frequent. He hoped she wasn’t going to become difficult.
Patricia poured the coffee and said: ‘These are the good times, when we can spend two or three nights consecutively together.’
Miller suppressed the sigh. ‘I like it, too. But don’t, darling. Please!’
‘Don’t what?’ she demanded sharply. ‘I didn’t say anything!’
‘You don’t have to,’ he said, wearily. He wondered if he could cut the conversation off by returning to the newspaper but decided against it. She’d become even more resentful.
‘You don’t love her. She doesn’t love you.’
Instead of immediately answering – because he could not quickly think of an answer he knew would satisfy her – Miller gazed fleetingly around the sprawling, antique-cluttered flat. That was a mistake.
‘I can’t believe it!’ exclaimed Patricia, seeing the look. ‘I can’t believe you stay just because she’s got money!’
‘I didn’t say that,’ Miller defended, weakly.
‘You didn’t have to,’ she said, using his words against him.
‘It’s not the money.’
‘So why then?’
‘I want to get the boys settled. We’ve talked it through enough times.’
‘You’ve talked about it enough times, as an excuse! They’re grown up, for Christ’s sake!’ She hadn’t argued this forcefully before. She wanted to but at the same time she was frightened, not anxious to push him too much.
‘They’re still both at university. I don’t want to create a family crisis that could affect that.’
‘You know how long we’ve been together, you and I?’
‘Of course I do.’
‘Five years!’ said Patricia. ‘Five years of unkept promises. I even transferred from counter-intelligence because you said you didn’t want us to be apart!’