Page 8 of The Last Library of Paris

With a sudden rush of irritation, I screwed the page up in my fist and threw it into the wastepaper basket beside my desk, where it joined the other letters I’d made a mess of.

‘Fed up?’ said Penny, who sat next to me, watching in amusement. I liked Penny – and the other women in the clerical department – enormously, which was the only thing keeping me going.

I rolled my eyes.

‘I’m a disaster.’

‘It’s lucky you can speak Portuguese, or you’d have been out on your ear yonks ago,’ she said, her eyes flashing with mischief. ‘Do you have any other skills? Maybe you should make a list, in case they ask.’

You’d be amazed, I thought wryly, picturing the combat training I’d had.

‘Digby says I won’t be here long,’ I told her. ‘Thank goodness. I probably create more work for you having to correct all my mistakes.’

Penny looked thoughtful for a second, then she leaned over my desk and lowered her voice.

‘Something’s happening,’ she said.

I eyed her carefully. Penny was sharp and more than once I’d considered making use of her on a team, but every time her indiscretion and love of gossip had made me think twice.

‘What do you know?’ I asked.

‘What do you know?’ she replied.

I leaned a little closer.

‘They’re cleaning out an office on the first floor. One of the big ones.’

Penny nodded as though that made perfect sense.

‘There’s a new vice-consul arriving,’ she said. ‘Apparently.’

We did not need a new vice-consul. There had never been a vice-consul at the embassy. There had been no vacancy.

This wasn’t a replacement; it was a new posting. And if it was part of the changes Digby had been talking about then it was almost certainly something to do with Section D. I felt a shiver of excitement.

‘Boring,’ I said to Penny.

She shrugged. ‘That’s what I thought.’ She turned back to her own typewriter. ‘Another stuffed suit making our lives more miserable, eh?’

‘Undoubtedly,’ I said. I picked up another sheet of paper and put it into my typewriter giving an over-exaggerated yawn.

Penny chuckled and turned back to her own work.

‘Dear Sirrrr’, I typed. I was totally distracted now and any hope of improvement in my typing had vanished.

‘Just popping to the ladies’,’ I told Penny, who didn’t seem at all interested. I got up from my desk and walked slowly out into the corridor, even though I wanted to run as fast as I could.

I found Digby in his office. He was standing by the window looking out over the front of the embassy.

‘I’m bored,’ I said bluntly. I sat down on his desk and straightened my skirt. ‘And I honestly think I might get the sack.’

Digby gave a bark of laughter.

‘There is a new vice-consul arriving,’ I said.

He looked impressed. ‘There is.’

‘We’ve never had a vice-consul before.’