"Normally very little is said about it at all," Laurie said, keeping up that bit of reserve till the conversation would no longer require it. "My father left when I was quite young and died not long after." After the divorce, but that most definitely had never been mentioned in polite conversation. Laurie couldn't picture his mother willingly discussing it with anyone, no matter the circumstances. So he would not discuss it either, old fashioned as the notion might have been.

"I went rather Irish during school. Of course, it didn't help with the nickname and if I had known I'd be joining the army later on ..."