Olsen said: ‘Not tomorrow morning.’

‘Why not? Katerina must have air.’

‘She can wait till we berth in Dieppe. Not a stroke of work was done on the ship while she was out this morning. Tomorrow she stays in, till we dock.’

‘You are cruel, Captain,’ Nadya said. She seemed to wake suddenly out of her apathy. She laughed, showing her teeth, strong and white with a single gold tooth at the side. ‘Will the ship sink if poor Katerina strolls on deck?’

Olsen laughed, too. ‘I will make sure of that!’

‘I guard her well while she takes her walk.’

‘We see it. So do the crew. There is more than the bear to look at.’

She grinned and stood up; she was at her most attractive, Mouritzen thought, when she looked like this – a coquette who might break a man’s arm almost without thinking.

‘I will go and tell Katerina what you say, Captain,’ she said. ‘Maybe she will come and eat you.’