Ann’s asking Uncle Nat to bring his girlfriend would not go down well with Leona. Nor would Harry take kindly to Nathan’s presence, though he now permitted him the occasional visit.

Marianne could not rid herself of the feeling that her agreement to Laura’s suggestion that they stop going north for the Festivals was committing family treason. But another feeling went with it. Relief. When the whole clan got together, the atmosphere could be likened to being sealed in a pressure cooker waiting for the lid to blow off, which it frequently did.

Not that the coming together of those of us who live in London can be guaranteed to go smoothly, she thought while pinning Sarah’s brooch to her red silk blouse. And Marianne’s bête noire would be present tonight! Shirley was spending the Passover with her daughter.

Chapter Two

‘I thought, once Hitler was beaten, we could put what he stood for behind us,’ Shirley was bemoaning when Marianne entered the living room.

Laura, beside her by the fireplace, replied, ‘But we’ve learned otherwise. Nor is it just the fascists we now have to contend with.’

Laura kissed Marianne. ‘Sorry about the delay in greeting you. What you came in at the end of was Mum’s reaction to hearing that Jake and Martin are on duty outside the synagogue during this evening’s service.’

Bessie, resplendent in royal blue velvet, was hovering beside the table, the dish of bitter herbs in her hands. ‘I’m not sure where to put this, Mummy.’

‘Since Daddy will be conducting the Seder, darling, try to find space for it beside his place.’

‘Can I move the salt and pepper pots?’

‘If you have to.’

‘This reminds me of when we were little and our grandmother let us lay the Seder table,’ Marianne reminisced to Shirley.

‘My own recollection of that,’ said Shirley, ‘is your trying to tell me where everything should be placed.’

‘But I wouldn’t have got away with it, would I?’ Marianne’s attempts to chat with Shirley invariably got no further than one sentence.

‘If anyone who shouldn’t tries to get into the synagogue with Daddy and Martin on duty, I wish them luck!’ said Bessie to Laura.

Shirley exclaimed, ‘It isn’t right for a child of nine to know about such things!’

‘Jewish kids in the eighties could hardly not know,’ Laura answered, ‘since their kindergartens and Hebrew classes now have to be protected. If you read the news in your Jewish Gazette, Mum, as well as the personal column, you’d know that there’s been no shortage of incidents in the first half of this decade. When someone put a bomb outside the Chief Rabbi of Austria’s flat in the summer of eighty-two, I thought back to us discussing the neo-Nazis at Uncle Nat’s, the day of the window consecration.’