‘Was that her?’ asked Noel, the three syllables so impacted that only the question mark was clearly intelligible.

‘I’m coming to that – so she stopped by the bed, took one look at me, and it was as if she’d been sand-bagged. She actually swayed on her feet. I wondered whether I’d broken out in spots or turned green, and then I realized there was something awfully familiar about her face. I heard one of the little nurses call her Sister Pearse, and the penny dropped, and I said, “We’ve met, haven’t we? A long time ago,” and she turned away and went racing off on her rounds again, but I could tell that something was up. So I thought, Sim, old man, you’d better try and have a proper powwow with this lady, and so when I …’ His voice trailed away, his animated expression suddenly fixed as he looked at Noel and seemed to see, for the first time, the tense angle of his neck, his face thrust forward, the better to catch every word.

‘Hang on,’ he said. ‘I’m doing this all wrong. I’m telling you this as if it were a mess anecdote, not a … a …’ He rubbed his mouth rather awkwardly. ‘What an awful fool I’m being,’ he said. ‘Crass. You’re only a youngster.’

‘I’m fifteen.’

‘Still. I’m sorry. I really should have asked you first if you knew anything about your parentage. I don’t want to shock you. For all that I know, your Miss Simpkin – Dr Simpkin – might have spun you a yarn to spare your feelings.’

‘My feelings about what?’

‘Well … that you’re not …’

‘Legitimate? I knew that already.’

‘Oh. What else did you know?’

He shrugged. ‘Nothing, really.’

‘You weren’t curious?’

Noel shook his head rather slowly. Why hadn’t he been curious? Perhaps life with Mattie had left no empty corners for brooding in. ‘I was told that my mother was not in a position to raise a child.’

‘No,’ said Sim, soberly. ‘No. She wouldn’t have been. She was terribly young. We were both terribly young.’ He raised his hands to the fire again. ‘So you were told nothing about me, then?’

‘No.’

‘I don’t suppose your Dr Simpkin had much use for men. She probably thought I was a bad lot.’

‘Are you?’

Sim laughed. ‘No worse than anyone else, I hope. So should I go on, then?’

‘Yes.’

‘Well. I couldn’t wangle a conversation with the sister when I was still a patient – to be frank, she wouldn’t come within yards of me – but the day I was discharged, I hung around outside the hospital and caught her when she finished work and, well, there you have it … Of course, I’d had no idea at the time, I’d left London by then. I never knew.’

‘That she was pregnant with me, you mean?’

‘Yes. I must say, you’re very forthright.’

‘Mattie didn’t believe in euphemisms. Where had you gone, then?’