Laura added with a rueful smile, ‘The wild oat, though, doesn’t seem to have inherited his intellect. Bessie, bless her heart, remains firmly fixed at the bottom of the class. So much for my private stipulation that the man who got me pregnant must be brainy as well as Jewish. This is some time for me to be telling you all this – with a hysterectomy looming up. When I’ve reached the end of the road pregnancy-wise. And when I’d have given anything to have a child with the man I love—’

They saw Jake re-enter the ward, carrying a cake box.

‘Isn’t that typical of him?’ said Laura. ‘Nobody could say Bessie didn’t finally get a wonderful dad.’

Chapter Five

On the day Laura underwent a hysterectomy Leona’s daughter, Carla, gave birth to her first child.

Marianne and Shirley were drinking tea together in Marianne’s kitchen when Leona telephoned her good news.

‘Some more of our grandmother’s almonds and raisins,’ Shirley said when the receiver was replaced, ‘and I felt like saying that to Leona. That she’s got the raisins and I’m sitting here chewing the almonds.’

‘I’m glad you didn’t.’

‘But you wouldn’t put it past me to’ve diluted her joy, would you?’

Marianne let that pass. ‘Knowing Leona, I’d say her concern for Laura already has.’

‘Well, we’re that kind of family, aren’t we?’ Shirley replied. ‘When you went through what you did, trying to have another baby, I kept my fingers crossed for you.’

Marianne was astonished to hear it, and had the good grace to say, ‘I appreciate that, Shirley. How long are you thinking of staying in London?’

‘A loaded question if ever I heard one. I’d intended staying only a couple of days. As you know, I’m very involved with the Manchester Thirty-five group, and—’

Marianne interrupted her to say, ‘I have a lot of admiration for the way you and your friends in that group campaign for Soviet Jewry, year in, year out.’

Shirley’s altruism in that respect was for Marianne her sole redeeming feature.

‘But you’ve always looked down on me, haven’t you?’ Shirley went on. ‘From your ivory tower.’

If that’s how Shirley sees me, so be it, Marianne thought with a mental shrug.

Shirley was thinking, What does Marianne really know about me? While she was off doing her own thing and the heck with her parents, I was helping my dad achieve what he did. And does she think because it’s nearly twenty years since I lost my son I’ve recovered? Forgotten I once had one? All I have now is a daughter who keeps me at arm’s length and money I’d be daft if I didn’t try to enjoy.