‘Goodness.’
‘He was on a U-boat, patrolling the North Sea. Just a boy. He was conscripted, late in the war … ’
Mr McCredie looked numb, his pale eyes staring out of the window.
‘What happened to him?’ said Carmen, when it was clear Mr McCredie didn’t know how to ask.
‘Oh,’ said the woman. ‘He was returned by the British, and shot as a spy.’
‘You’re kidding.’
She shook her head.
‘It was … It was a hard time all round.’
Mr McCredie nodded, tears in his eyes.
‘Did he … did he know about me?’
‘I don’t think so,’ said the woman. ‘When is your birthday?’
They matched the days. Mr McCredie nodded. ‘He would have gone before my mother even knew.’
Silence fell. Carmen took Mr McCredie’s shaking hand and squeezed it.
‘You don’t have to be ashamed,’ she said. The visitors shook their heads.
‘She gave me his name,’ he said. ‘I always, always hated it.’
Carmen looked at him in surprise. She had never even asked his first name. Goodness, she didn’t know anyone’s name.
‘What, Erich?’
‘Eric,’ he said. ‘Common enough in Edinburgh, of course. My father didn’t suspect, or he didn’t let on. But the other boys … ’
He shook his head.
‘It’s a nice name,’ said Carmen again, squeezing his hand.
‘It is a nice name,’ said Sofia, as Carmen related the whole story over dinner.
They looked at each other, and over at the bassinet.
‘No way,’ said Carmen. ‘No. He hates his name, never uses it.’
‘That’s before he found out his father was only a boy. A poor, frightened boy, by the sound of things.’
‘I believe Sofia has her “mind made up” face on,’ came Federico from the floor.
‘Do you like it?’ demanded Carmen.
‘I do, as it happens,’ said Federico. ‘But I would have said I did even if I didn’t.’
‘How are you such a successful lawyer?’
‘This will be a clean slate for him,’ said Sofia decisively. ‘And it’s about him, not his father. Eric. Yes.’
She picked up the beautiful baby. ‘We’ll tell him when he comes for Christmas lunch.’
‘Oh!’ said Carmen. ‘I forgot. He’s not coming.’
‘You’re kidding?’
‘I’m sorry!’
‘What’s he doing? Spending it with his new family?’
‘No, although now apparently I have to make lots of money for the shop because he wants to visit them.’ Carmen rolled her eyes. ‘Then he wants to take a trip to the Antarctic. Apparently cruise ships go there.’
‘So why isn’t he coming for Christmas?’
Carmen covered her face.
‘Oh my God. He’s going to Mrs Marsh’s.’
‘Your old boss?!’
‘Don’t. Make. Me. Think. About. It.’