She looked very different from the woman of the morning out at Jericho. Hair neatly brushed, a cream silk shirt, blue skirt, bare feet in leather sandals. She smiled, put out a hand to stop me moving, for I was attempting to get to my feet.

‘Don’t move! Please! I am a little late … a rush today; it irritates me to be late. The sun is not too bright for you?’

‘I love the sun, it is very pleasant here.’

‘It is more cheerful here than in, what do you call it in English, the parlour, I think?’

‘Very probably.’

‘And the banana tree. You admire the banana tree? You must! My mother tends it with intense care. She lived much of her life in Algeria, you see, so she became attached to the things and insisted that she would have one in mainland France. My father was in the army. A colonel.’

‘My father was a schoolmaster, that is to say a headmaster.’

‘Oh I know. James told me of him. He spoke very little of his family. But now and then he would begin to remember things. I think he was not a very happy child, would that be so?’

‘Well, it depends. He had no reason not to be happy. He was adored by my mother and sister …’

‘Perhaps not by you?’ Her head on one side, the light smile on her lips, the grey eyes steady, inquiring.

‘I hardly saw him. You know? School, university and so on … there was a difference in our ages after all.’

She had taken a chair directly opposite mine, and was sitting forward, hands lightly clasped on her knee.

‘I will play a game with you,’ she said suddenly. ‘You will play?’

‘Certainly. What game?’

‘The photograph of you all at the sea, outside a tent? Remember, we spoke of it this morning?’

‘Very well.’

‘James is holding something in his hand, in his fingers really … he is not, I think, very pleased with it. Do you remember what it was?’

I laughed at her suddenly, her smile faded, the eyes clouded. She was playing a game all right. This was a test of proof. Proof, of course, that I was indeed his long-lost brother and not some imposter. No fool here.

‘I could have brought my passport over, had you asked, you know. All my details are there, date of birth, place, everything … it would have given you all the information which you seek.’

‘I did not mean to be impolite. But one has to be sure in life.’

‘If I remember correctly, after some twenty-five or so years, I think it was some kind of fish, or a crab; maybe a starfish? He was holding it up by one leg, it was dead and a bit smelly. A crab, I feel sure.’

She clapped her hands lightly. ‘Bravo!’