‘I heard. She nipped past an army truck, they told me and landed on this bridge.’ He picked up his spoon again and twiddled it in his fingers for a moment and then put it back down in the saucer. ‘Just as this bugger shoved a plunger.’ He was silent for a moment. ‘I had to identify them, Mrs Barry. At least then I knew they were dead. This was no f … joke. No one was playing a joke on me. I knew that then for sure. I don’t suppose you can imagine what it’s like to identify a ten-month-old baby who’s been …’

She put out a hand and touched his arm.

‘Just stop a minute,’ she said. ‘Take a breath.’

She sounded like a bloody schoolteacher, he thought. He took a breath.

‘That’s better,’ she said.

‘My wife and child died for Ireland.’

‘Laurence …’

‘So that Ireland should be free from the centre to the sea and hurrah for liberty says the Shan Van Vocht.’

‘When did this terrible thing happen?’

‘Two years ago. It was a lovely spring day, just like today. A peace and love kind of a day. The kind of a day when you get up in the morning and say, “It’s great to be alive.” I don’t want you to say anything, Mrs Barry.’

She shook her head.

‘I don’t want any of your decent kindly thoughts to rub off on me. I want to be allowed to hate in peace. I think that one of the reasons I liked Clara from the word go was the fact that I thought at that moment when I saw her first that she was going to do the thing that I had never yet had the guts to do. Get out.’

‘Drink your coffee before it gets cold.’

Obediently, he picked up the cup and took a quick sip.

‘Have you told Clara all this?’

‘No.’

She looked relieved.

‘I don’t tell anyone. As I said before, I like my privacies. I don’t want to rationalise, or share pain. I don’t want to heal, because there is always the possibility that that might mean forgetting. I want to remember every tiny detail and I want to hate. That’s all.’ He put the cup down. ‘I don’t know why I spoke to you. I wish I hadn’t. That’s no reflection on you. Please believe that.’ He pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘Thanks for the coffee. I’m sorry if you think I’m a selfish jerk.’

‘There is no need to tell Clara all this. I would prefer it if you were to leave her unburdened, for the time being anyway.’