He lit a cigarette. Smoke drifted from his mouth, in the manner of the elderly. He smiled again, unnerving me. Have I upset you, Axel..? Impulsively, I reached for his cigarettes and lit one. Aside from the O, I hadn't smoked for twenty years. As I blew out a lungful across the table I wondered if the idea of offending Axel were really worth a renegotiation with mortality. Clearly, it was. I enjoyed the sensual play of the filter on my lips while sensing a black pool of fear in my belly. If I had offended Axel then it could have happened any time in the last year, possibly two, and most likely I was the last to know. Well, you've not offended me, he said, opening his hands as if reminding me never to attribute human feelings to him, at least not in public. He smiled again, a grimace. Though, I have to say, Gertrude is not happy.

Gertrude..?

Not happy with the book, no.  He looked up and over at me, as if resting tired eyes.

Axel, I've no idea how I've upset Gertrude. 

I said this evenly, with my breath, and if there were any irony, he'd never find it. Lifting a serviette from the table and taking a pen from his top pocket, he said, rather arily...you know this area?

I have maps, Axel.

So I'd upset the fucking housekeeper...! Attributing negative feelings to the working or middle classes was something he tended to do. I remembered how he'd recently sold Cezanne's Eternal Woman to the Russians and had been deeply angered by the unsavoury negotiations. But he only ever said the accountants were boring him with it all. But there was history here, and it was possible that I'd angered the housekeeper. While researching the book, I'd made a point of asking Axel about Gertrude. I'd sensed the anomaly of her role in his life. As a militant homosexual, he'd only ever employed male butlers and the heavy presence of Gertrude- this charmless woman of random decorum- had intrigued me. I had wondered about unacknowledged sisters, wartime conflict, childhood trauma, repatriation. Axel had insisted, there's nothing there. So I left it alone and in the book made only passing reference to Gertrude, housekeeper. 

Anyway, bear it in mind for the second edition. 

He passed the serviette across the table. So, the party. It's at the Grotte des demoiselles.

Our rendezvous was over and I'd not even had coffee. I folded the map into my pocket and pushed back the chair in a single gesture. I'd been cast into hell and had no idea why.


Oh don't go...! 

Axel was smiling.

I want you to meet Robert...!