The man looked at me as if he would deny everything. ‘I don’t know your family,’ he said cautiously. ‘I don’t know what you mean by the People.’

‘My father was a Verde in Aragon,’ I said. ‘An old Jewish family. We changed our name so long ago I don’t know what it should have been. My cousins are the Gaston family in Paris. My husband has taken the name of Carpenter now, but he comes from the d’Israeli family. He is in Calais.’ I checked when I found that my voice shook slightly at his name. ‘He was in Calais when the town was taken. I believe he is a prisoner now. I have no recent news of him. This is his son. He has not spoken since we left Calais, he is afraid, I think. But he is Daniel d’Israeli’s son, and he needs his birthright.’

‘I understand you,’ he said gently. ‘Is there any proof you can give me of your race and your sincerity?’

I whispered very low. ‘When my father died, we turned his face to the wall and we said: “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.” ’

The man closed his eyes. ‘Amen.’ And then opened them again. ‘What do you want with me, Hannah d’Israeli?’

‘My son will not speak,’ I said.

‘He is mute?’

‘He saw his wet nurse die in Calais. He has not spoken since that day.’

He nodded and took Daniel on to his knee. With great care he touched his face, his ears, his eyes. I thought of my husband learning his skill to care for the children of others, and I wondered if he would ever again see his own son, and if I could teach this child to say his father’s name.

‘I can see no physical reason that he should not speak,’ he said.

I nodded. ‘He can laugh, and he can make sounds. But he does not say words.’

‘You want him circumcised?’ he asked very quietly. ‘It is to mark him for life. He will be known as a Jew then. He will know himself as a Jew.’

‘I keep my faith in my heart now,’ I said, my voice little more than a whisper. ‘When I was a young woman I thought of nothing, I knew nothing. I just missed my mother. Now that I am older and I have a child of my own I know that there is more than the bond of a mother and her child. There is the People and our faith. Our little family lives within our kin. And that goes on. Whether his father is alive or dead, whether I am alive or dead, the People go on. Even though I have lost my father and my mother and now my husband, I acknowledge the People, I know there is a God, I know his name is Elohim. I still know there is a faith. And Daniel is part of it. I cannot deny it for him. I should not.’