‘No, I think he does.’

‘Well, I disagree. All boys sometimes feel the occasional tinge of embarrassment over their parents, but they get over it. And Melanie Klein …’

‘I don’t see what she’s got to do with this,’ said Stuart.

‘But, Stuart, can’t you see? What we’re witnessing here is a token rejection of parental involvement by a child who really needs his parents to support him but fears that they will not answer his call. He therefore feels anxiety and needs to test the depth of parental commitment by appearing not to want parental involvement. Can’t you see that?’

Stuart shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Well, I assure you – that’s what’s going on. And as far as I’m concerned, I would see myself as failing little Bertie if I did not go to Bonaly as a helper.’

Stuart bit his lip. ‘Irene, sometimes I wonder …’

Irene glared at him, and Stuart got up from the table. ‘Where are you going?’

He pointed to Bertie’s door at the end of the corridor. ‘To have a word with my son.’

He knocked on the door but did not wait for a reply. Going in, he found the little boy stretched out on his bed, his head buried in the pillow.

‘Cheer up, old chap,’ Stuart whispered. ‘And don’t be too cross with Mummy. She’s just trying to help – she really is. And she loves you very much, you know. You do know that, don’t you?’

Bertie sniffed. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I know.’

‘Let me tell you something,’ said Stuart, sitting down next to Bertie on the bed. ‘I’m going to take you fishing in the Pentlands. Just you and me. Would you like that?’

‘When?’ asked Bertie.

‘Next weekend,’ said Stuart. ‘We’ll go on Saturday. But one little word of advice. Don’t tell Mummy we’re going to catch fish. I think we’ll tell her we’re going to look at them. Understand?’

Bertie understood perfectly.

28. A Game of Bridge

Bruce Anderson enjoyed going to the gym. For years he had belonged to a health club in Fountainbridge; now he had ‘traded up’, as he put it, to a gym in the Sheraton Hotel in Lothian Road where, in addition to working out on the various exercise machines, he could swim in the pool and use the various saunas and Turkish baths on offer.