‘All right. You tell this alky joker that if I catch him anywhere near my house again I’ll kill him outright and won’t mind the sentence. And you get him to sign those divorce papers. OK, boy?’

The front door slammed. Malcolm and Eileen were staring each other down, more engaged now, in their hatred, than they’d ever been when living together.

‘Why the hell have you decided to change her name?’

She hissed out a noise to silence him.

‘You’ll do this quietly, Malcolm Campbell, or I’ll bring Alec back out and I won’t stand in his way again. Maybe I’ll even let the girl watch.’

He snarled at her, but he dropped to an exaggerated whisper.

‘Our daughter has a name, Eileen. She has a name, and that name is now the one thing tying her to me and to my family history and language, and traditions. I’ll thank you to inform the school that she is to be called by it.’

‘Your traditions. It’s an Irish name. It’s not from the islands. I can’t have her going to school with an Irish name. Do you know what people are like round here? Do you know how deep it all runs? Don’t be stupid. Besides, nobody could bloody well spell it.’

‘And the Johnstone? You are still a married woman, are you not, and it distinctly says on her birth certificate Campbell. Campbell!’

‘Johnstone is the same name as her cousins. It makes her part of the family. It means the school know who she is and where she comes from.’

‘I’m going to be phoning that school. I’m going to be writing them letters to insist that her name is changed back on all official records. You want me to sign the divorce papers, these are my conditions. And you. You are to call her by her proper, given name.’

‘You are no one to tell me what I do or don’t call my own daughter. You are no one. Do you understand that?’

Malcolm fizzed, bent double, flailed with his hand outstretched. For one second, Donald thought he might be having a fit.

‘You’re trying to erase me, Eileen! You’re trying to rub me out of my – our child’s life!’

Eileen stepped back to her doorstep, pulled her cardigan around herself.

‘Och no, Malcolm. I imagine you’ll do that bit all by yourself.’