THE HOUSE AT SEA’S END

avoids Phil, Ruth’s boss. Certainly no two men could be less alike than Erik and Phil.
    ‘Lewis Carroll,’ says Cathbad dreamily, ‘such a visionary.’
    ‘I thought he was a paedophile.’
    ‘He was a sad little man who liked the company of young girls. What’s wrong with that?’
    ‘Ask Nelson.’
    Cathbad smiles. To everyone’s surprise, including their own, Cathbad and Nelson get on rather well. Twice they have faced considerable danger together and Cathbad is convinced that Nelson saved his life on one of these occasions. They are bound together by this circumstance, he says, forever. Nelson grunts sceptically when he hears this, but despite a famed intolerance for anything even slightly fey or alternative Nelson finds Cathbad good company. Beneath the New Age trappings is a keen intelligence at work in Cathbad. Nelson sometimes thinks that he would have made a good detective.
    ‘Nelson sees demons everywhere. How are you, Ruthie?’
    Ruth is startled. For one thing, it seems like years since anyone has asked about her rather than Kate. For another – Ruthie? Only Erik ever called Ruth Ruthie.
    ‘I’m fine. You look different. What is it?’
    Cathbad raises a slightly self-conscious hand to his face and Ruth realises.
    ‘You’ve shaved off your beard.’
    For the past few years, Cathbad has sported a black beard, dramatically at odds with his greying hair. Without it he looks younger, more approachable and, to Ruth’s surprise, rather good-looking.
    ‘Maddy persuaded me.’
    Maddy is Cathbad’s teenage daughter. It’s news to Ruth that they’re in contact. ‘Good for Maddy. It’s a distinct improvement.’
    Ruth puts her bag on the visitor’s chair and waits for Cathbad to vacate hers. Instead, he smiles up at her, eyes very dark in his clean-shaven face.
    ‘How’s Hecate?’
    ‘Kate,’ snaps Ruth. Jesus, why can’t anyone get her name right?
    ‘I was thinking that it was about time for her naming ceremony.’
    Cathbad has appointed himself Kate’s godfather. Ruth quite likes the idea of godparents (anyone turning up with presents is surely a Good Thing) but has refused to have Kate christened because of the little problem of not believing in God. Cathbad, who likes any opportunity to have a party, has suggested a pagan naming ceremony instead. Ruth doesn’t believe in the pagan gods either but at leastCathbad’s plans don’t involve a church. A picnic on the beach was his last suggestion.
    ‘Bit cold on the beach,’ she says now.
    ‘We could have a bonfire.’ Cathbad loves bonfires. He says they are libations for the gods but Nelson is convinced that he is a closet arsonist.
    ‘You’re not going to start sacrificing goats, are you?’
    Cathbad looks hurt. ‘Of course not. It’s a very simple ceremony. We’re just going to show Kate to the gods, that’s all.’
    ‘Still sounds a bit Wicker Man.’
    ‘Forget the gods. Just see it as a party to welcome Kate to the world.’
    ‘That sounds okay, I suppose.’
    ‘Great. I’ll organise it. Shall we say Thursday week? Are you going to invite your parents?’
    ‘I don’t think a pagan naming ceremony will be quite their thing somehow.’
    ‘Are you sure? What about Shona?’
    ‘She’ll come.’ Shona loves a party almost as much as Cathbad does, and despite a Catholic upbringing she is definitely on the side of the pagans.
    ‘You’ll have to invite Phil too,’ says Ruth mischievously. ‘They’re together now.’
    ‘In that case I will invite him,’ says Cathbad with dignity. ‘Even though I find him a rather negative spiritual presence.’
    It’s mutual, Ruth wants to tell him. But she doesn’t. Despite everything, she quite likes the idea of a party for Kate. She gives in and sits in the visitor’s chair. Good old Cathbad. He’s been a real support to her over the first few months of Kate’s life. He deserves to be a godparent.
    Cathbad’s next words, though, wipe the indulgent smile from Ruth’s face.
    ‘We’ll have to have Nelson.’
    ‘Why?’ asks Ruth warily.
    Cathbad looks at her blandly. One of the most irritating things about him is that you never quite know what he’s thinking.
    ‘I see Nelson as a sort of spiritual father to Kate.’
    ‘Do you?’ Ruth’s heart is beating fast but she keeps her face still.
    ‘He can be a Guardian. Someone to watch over her.’
    ‘Nelson’s a Catholic. He wouldn’t come to a pagan ceremony.’
    ‘He’s not hung up on ritual. He’d come. I’m