‘I know, I heard. You have a wife and two little girls already.’ I stared at the ground, unable to look at him, my tears coming dangerously close.

‘What! No! Who has told you such a thing?’

‘It’s useless denying it. Your wife cooked a meal for Matron, only last month. Your children are beautiful, she says so.’

He cupped my chin and lifted my face so that I could not avoid his eyes. ‘My sister-in-law, Katerina, looks after me and my father when we stay on Kea, and we look after her while my brother is in the army!’

I stared at him while the news went into my head. ‘You’re not married? Oh! Then what is your big confession?’ He took a breath, his face colouring a little. ‘Manno, you’re blushing! Oh, my goodness, what is it?’

‘I am ashamed, agapi mou, you see . . . I cannot read or write the English alphabet. My sister-in-law, she found your letters two weeks ago. I kept them all, you understand. Katerina, she read some of them to me.’

‘Manno, you break my heart.’

‘I think your father has guessed the truth, that I love you, agapi, but he does not want his daughter to run away with a foreigner and live in another country. He told me I was too late, that my Gertie is happily married, and she has a child. He said if I really loved you, I would leave you alone. Is it true, agapi? Are you married to that malaka English soldier, Perkins?’

‘What could I do? I was having a baby, and you never replied! I needed a father for my child, and that malaka English soldier, as you call him, saved me from going to prison and perhaps from being hanged. What a mess this is! What shall we do?’

‘Leave him and come back to Greece with me.’

‘I can’t do that. If I leave him, he’ll tell the authorities the truth. Besides, he really loves me. They could hang me, Manno, don’t you understand? You see, it was me that went against orders and opened the portholes on the ship. Because of my action, the two-million-pound hospital ship sank before it reached the port. They could have saved it, repaired it, and gone on to save thousands of lives. I’m guilty of mass murder.’

‘How can you be guilty of mass murder? You’re a girl! This is crazy, you cannot stay with a man who blackmails you into having his baby!’

I stared at him, my heart thumping and my eyes full of tears. ‘No,’ I sobbed. ‘No, you don’t understand! Oh, why didn’t Katerina read all my letters? This is too much, Manno!’ Then I couldn’t speak for the sobs that were jerking my chest. The pain gathered and rose until it escaped in a great howl.