Still stirring the gravy, and not looking at her, Seth talks about how much he loves Jude; how it’s a creative and whole and special and wonderful relationship… and that they’re both very happy together. Surely that’s what’s important… to have found happiness and not be a lonely, twisted, insecure, frightened person? But before all the words are spoken, Chris and Naomi burst into the kitchen. Ceinwen’s eyes catch Seth’s for a fleeting second, pleading – and demanding at the same time – that no more be said.

The family gathers around the table to eat. Ceinwen had decided it would be convenient to all concerned that the five of them should eat at home, and then go over to the George III after Chris’s family had rested and eaten. Seth is struck by the strangeness of English conversation around the dining table of his family home. His mother speaks English with an affected twang. His father’s grasp of the language is laboured and makes him sound a bit stupid, which he isn’t. Naomi’s Welsh accent, however, is scarcely audible.

The wedding talk gives way to disconnected snippets from work, respective family histories, last year’s holidays, the new ovens in the bakery and the price of Welsh lamb, which Ceinwen believes to be robbery, but then Welsh is so much tastier than New Zealand! And then Chris asks Seth how Jude is.

Seth smiles at him and fleetingly wonders whether his question is born of naivety or rebellion. He shares the news of Jude’s success in getting the Senior Lectureship.

‘Well done, Jude!’ murmurs Chris, adding, ‘It’s a shame he can’t be with you this time.’

Seth’s father Mostyn stops eating, his fork poised, his eyes fixed on the remains of the Welsh lamb’s leg. Ceinwen has flushed, her face as crimson as her frock, her stare intent on silencing Chris. He seems oblivious, confident even that he’ll be his own man, son-in-law to the imperious Ceinwen or no.

‘Has Jude’s thesis been published yet?’ he asks. Ceinwen’s rudeness reveals how flagrant she finds Chris’s disregard for her version of the family code. Addressing Naomi directly in Welsh she snaps, ‘Chris must understand that Seth’s misadventure with that Jewish man is not acceptable family conversation.’

‘If you want to say something to Chris,’ Naomi answers in English, ‘you’d better speak to him in a language that he can understand!’

Mostyn lays his fork on his plate, and takes Ceinwen’s shaking hand on the table.

‘Our background and generation,’ he murmurs to Chris with profound humility, ‘make it difficult to accept Seth’s choices in life. We would rather you spared us the embarrassment.’

The dining room falls silent but as the seconds slip away the chink of knives and forks fills the quiet that had separated the family.