‘Did he hurt that lady?’
‘No, he just scared her.’
‘Why?’
Eddie didn’t feel the time was right for a discussion about racism and xenophobia. ‘Some people are idiots, and bullies,’ he said instead.
‘But you stopped him. You’re really brave, Daddy!’
He smiled. ‘I did what was right, that’s all. If everyone did that, the world’d be a much nicer place.’
‘Is that why you joined the soldiers? To make the world nicer?’
He grinned. ‘I don’t think anyone’s ever described it that way before, but… yeah, I suppose I did. There are nasty people who do bad things, and we tried to stop them and help the people they’d hurt.’
She hugged him. ‘You are really brave, Daddy.’
‘I do my best.’ He picked up Macy and resumed their interrupted journey.
The encounter had made them late.
‘And what time do you call this?’ said his sister Elizabeth mockingly.
‘Couldn’t find a clock,’ Eddie told the three people waiting for them in the small park across from the Houses of Parliament. ‘You know where one is?’ He pretended to squint at the Elizabeth Tower, the official name of the clock tower more commonly known as Big Ben. The Yorkshireman had arranged to meet his family there to show Macy the iconic symbol of Britain. ‘Actually, we got held up on the way.’
‘Daddy told a nasty man to leave a lady alone!’ Macy said excitedly.
Larry Chase, Eddie’s father, knelt to embrace the little girl. ‘He did, did he?’
Elizabeth shook her head. ‘Even when you’re on holiday with your daughter, you can’t stay out of trouble, can you?’
‘Well, I could’ve just let some no-neck idiot keep on abusing a woman half his size, but hey,’ he shrugged, ‘I wanted to set a good example for my daughter. Mad, I know. Anyway, hi, Lizzie! And Dad, Julie.’
‘Hi, Eddie,’ said Julie Chase, his stepmother. Larry’s second wife was actually younger than either of his children, a fact that Eddie still found disconcerting even after he had settled most of his differences with his once-estranged father. ‘And hi, Macy! Gosh, you’ve got so big.’
‘What happened, then?’ Larry asked him. ‘Was this just on the street?’
‘Yeah, we were on our way to the Tube station when this moron started having a go. I had words with him, and he stopped.’
‘Daddy beat him up!’ Macy said proudly.
‘I did not beat him up,’ Eddie hurriedly clarified on seeing the trio’s startled looks. ‘I just made him apologise and then told him to get lost, that’s all.’
‘Why was he having a go at her?’ said Larry.
‘For not being English, far as I could tell.’
Elizabeth made a disgusted sound. ‘There’s been so much of that going on since Brexit, it’s horrible. You’re lucky to be out of it in the States.’
‘Because nobody in America’s said anything racist lately,’ Eddie replied sarcastically. ‘But yeah, things feel different.’
‘Not as much money around, and what there is, is going to the people at the very top,’ said Larry. ‘Granted, ’twas ever thus, but it seems more so than usual. Pulling out of Europe’s really hit my company, because more than half my business was with the EU. Very glad I’m about to retire.’
‘He’s pretty much retired already,’ Julie said with a smile. ‘He spends as much time playing golf as in the office now.’
‘How’s Holly?’ Eddie asked Elizabeth of his niece. ‘We haven’t seen her since she was in the States two years back.’
‘She’s fine,’ his sister replied. ‘She finished her degree — with a first, so I’m very proud! — and is working for a media company in Bristol, but she’s hoping to get a job in America. She would have come tonight, but couldn’t get away.’
‘Aw, shame.’
‘I know, she would have loved to see Macy again. So what else have you two been doing? You’ve been in England for a couple of days, haven’t you?’
Eddie nodded. ‘Nina’s filming her documentary in Israel, so I thought I’d show Macy her roots. Took her up to Yorkshire to see our old neck of the woods, visited the children’s museum in Halifax, then went to Alton Towers before coming down here.’
‘How is Nina?’ Julie asked. ‘I tried phoning her to wish her a happy birthday, but couldn’t get hold of her. I suppose she was already in Israel.’
‘Yeah, she spent her fortieth in the bloody desert. Even I didn’t get to talk to her until the next day. Although to be honest, she wasn’t exactly celebrating it anyway. The big four-oh’s more when a lot of people start worrying about being middle-aged.’
‘Did you worry about it?’ Julie asked him.
He had passed the landmark five years earlier. ‘Nah, only thing that bothered me was that I was halfway to going bald. So I thought, sod it, and went for the full Captain Picard.’ He rubbed a hand over his shaven scalp. ‘Got my retaliation in first.’
‘Everything’s war with you, isn’t it?’ said Elizabeth. ‘It always has been.’
He didn’t take her bait for two reasons: the first was that he had no intention of getting into an argument with her in front of Macy, and the second that his phone had started ringing. ‘Speaking of Nina, that’s her,’ he said, recognising the ringtone. He answered. ‘Ay up, love! I’m here with the rest of the family. How’re you doing?’
‘Great, thanks!’ Nina replied. He instantly knew she was excited about some new discovery, the barely contained exhilaration in her voice as familiar as her ringtone. ‘You won’t believe what we found today. We opened up the First Temple, which was a big event in itself, but then once we were inside—’
‘You want to say hi to everyone before you get into an archaeological frenzy?’ he suggested. ‘I’ll put you on speaker. Macy, it’s Mummy.’
‘Mommy,’ Macy corrected as he switched to speakerphone.
‘Yeah, yeah. Say hello to her. Everyone else, an’ all.’
A chorus of ‘Hi, Nina!’ followed. ‘And a belated happy fortieth birthday!’ added Julie. ‘Sorry we missed it!’
‘Thanks,’ Nina said, sounding far from sorry herself. ‘Is everyone okay?’
‘We’re all fine,’ Julie told her. ‘We’re taking Macy to see Starshine Stables this evening.’
‘I… don’t know what that is.’
‘It’s a musical, love,’ said Eddie, grinning. ‘You know, with songs and dancing and stuff.’
Her reply had a light touch of frosting. ‘Yes, I’m aware of the form, darling.’
‘It’s about magic horses!’ Macy said enthusiastically.
‘Sounds like you’ll enjoy it, Macy. I hope everyone else does! Anyway, can you put Daddy back on? I need to tell him something.’
Hiding his exasperation, Eddie returned the phone to his ear. ‘It’d better be “I love you”. Or about that thing you don’t want to do nearly often enough.’
‘Funny man. No, I’ve got to tell you about what I found today, because I might need to stay out here a bit longer to examine it fully.’
‘What?’
His disapproval was clear in the single word. Nina tempered her enthusiasm, slightly. ‘We found a secret chamber, a map room. We think it gives the location of a lost city visited by King Solomon. I want to work with the team here to decipher it. We’ll also be shooting extra material for the documentary to cover the new find.’
‘And how long’ll that take?’
‘I don’t know yet. A couple of days? Maybe.’
He moved a few steps away from the others for some modicum of privacy. ‘Maybe?’
‘Look, it’s a major discovery! I really don’t know how long, okay?’
Now trying to conceal more than mere exasperation, Eddie glanced at their daughter. ‘Macy was expecting to see you in two days.’