‘You have my protection whether you need it or not,’ Daniel said. ‘I am your husband, and I do not forget it.’

He took up his cape from the stool before the fire and swung it around his shoulders. ‘I shall come tomorrow, and every day at noon,’ he said. ‘And I shall find a good woman to sit with him so that you can rest.’

‘I will care for him,’ I fired up. ‘I don’t need any help.’

He paused in the doorway. ‘You do need help,’ he said gently. ‘This is not something you can do well on your own. And you shall have help. I shall help you, whether you like it or not. And you will be glad of it when this is all over, even if you resist it now. I shall be kind to you, Hannah, whether you want me or not.’

I nodded; I could not trust myself to speak. Then he went out of the door into the rain and I went upstairs to my father and took up the Bible in Hebrew and read to him some more.

* * *

As Daniel had predicted, my father slipped away very quickly. True to his word, Daniel brought a night nurse so that my father was never alone, never without a candle burning in his room and the quiet murmur of the words he loved to hear. The woman, Marie, was a stocky French peasant girl from devout parents and she could recite all the psalms, one after another. At night my father would sleep, lulled by the rolling cadences of the Ile de France. In the day I found a lad to mind the shop while I sat with him and read to him in Hebrew. Only in April did I find a new volume which had a small surviving snippet of the prayers for the dead. I saw his smile of acknowledgement. He raised his hand, I fell silent.

‘Yes, it is time,’ was all he said. His voice was a thread. ‘You will be well, my child?’

I put the book on the seat of my chair and knelt at his bedside. Effortfully he put his hand on my head for a blessing. ‘Don’t worry about me,’ I whispered. ‘I will be all right. I have the shop and the press, I can earn a living, and Daniel will always look after me.’

He nodded. Already he was drifting away, too far to give advice, too far to remonstrate. ‘I bless you, querida,’ he said gently.

‘Father!’ My eyes were filled with tears. I dropped my head to his bed.

‘Bless you,’ he said again and lay quietly.

I levered myself back to my chair and blinked my eyes. Through the blur of tears I could hardly see the words. Then I started to read. ‘Magnified and sanctified be the name of God throughout the world which He has created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom during the days of your life and during the life of all of the house of Israel, speedily, yea soon; and say ye, Amen.’