“Nothing. Everything. I don’t know.” He shook his head vigorously. “Carl was torn about the war, you see. His eyesight was damaged by a case of the measles, and there was no doubt that he couldn’t serve, when the war came. But his younger brother George joined the Army with the Eastfield Company. And Carl’s favorite German cousin—Hilda’s sister’s boy—hurried to join the German army. Carl considers himself English, but he was worried about his brother and his cousin. Neither of them survived. It wasn’t long after we heard about George that someone sent Carl an anonymous letter saying that George had been shot in the back while crossing No Man’s Land. The Army refused to confirm or deny the story, but the letter claimed that George had been shot because he had a German mother, spoke fluent German, and wasn’t to be trusted.”

George Hopkins. Rutledge remembered the name. He’d been one of the two Eastfield soldiers who died in the war.

“Go on.”

“When the Eastfield soldiers began to come home from France, Carl asked them how his brother had died, and in Carl’s view they were evasive. Well, apparently it was a night attack just as George’s commanding officer had told us in his letter. No one really knew how he died. Were you in the war? I can’t imagine that it’s a tidy business, attacking at night. I suspect the letter—which was posted from London—was meant to be hurtful, not true. Unfortunately, about this same time, Carl’s aunt wrote to him to say that his cousin had died of his wounds as an English prisoner, and she believed he hadn’t been given proper attention. It was understandable, she was upset, looking for someone to blame, but she told Carl that he ought to be ashamed of his English heritage, because the English had killed both George and his cousin. Carl withdrew into himself. Dr. Gooding gave him something to help him, because he walked for hours every night, unable to sleep. Thank God, early last year he got over whatever it was, came back to work, and seemed to be himself again. I can’t tell you how relieved I was.”

“Then why are you telling me about him now?”