Manno pulled me against him. ‘Don’t cry, please! I’ll do anything you want, anything, but don’t cry.’

‘Manno, I love you! And Adam is your son . . .’

His jaw dropped, and for a moment he seemed frozen in shock. Then, he took me firmly by the shoulders and almost shook me, disbelief written on his face. ‘My son! You are telling me that this baby, right here, is my son? My son?’

I nodded. ‘I was a virgin, remember. You were my first love. I told you in my letters I was pregnant.’

Manno seemed too emotional to speak, then he exploded with joy. ‘I have a son! Holy Virgin Mary, I have a son!’ He crossed himself and then pulled me against him. ‘This is a miracle. Let me see him. Does he look like me? My son . . . oh!’

‘Yes, he’s starting to look like you. I don’t know how I’m going to explain his brown eyes and dark hair to my husband when he comes home, but it’s clear to see he’s changing to look a little more like you every day.’ I unhooked the elastic loops on the perambulator’s apron and pushed the hood down. Adam stirred and sucked his fist. ‘It is coming up to his feed time. I must return home.’ The pain of loneliness gathered in my chest. Manno, my love. I didn’t want him to leave, but he must.

‘He is so beautiful, yes,’ he said breathily. ‘Let me pick him up and hold him, my own son.’

‘No, it’s too cold. Come back to the cottage tomorrow morning. My father will be working at the hospital after eight o’clock.’

‘I can’t. My ferry ticket is for tomorrow morning. I must start back to the port. I don’t have the money for another ticket back to Greece.’ I could see he was distressed and it broke my heart.

‘Then come back to the house. I will speak to my father.’

‘I have spoken to him, agapi mou. He made it clear I was not welcome here. Thank the Virgin Mary I came across you, or I would never have known I have a son.’

‘Trust me. My father’s a good man. He’s only doing what he thinks is best. Allow me to go and speak to him.’

‘He will shoot me!’

‘No.’ I smiled. ‘Fathers do not shoot boys who make their daughters pregnant anymore. Trust me.’

‘I want you to know, I love you. When Katerina had read the first few letters to me, I went out and sold my boat to pay for a trip to come here.’

‘Manno, you sold your precious boat? Oh, my goodness.’

‘Well, to give you the truth, it was my father’s boat, and now he is threaten to shoot me. But no worries, when I tell him about the grandson of his, everything will change.’