Chapter 38

“Natasha,” Anton repeated quietly as they fell into step, heading for Edgware tube station. “That was my name. Natasha Jane Williams.”

“Okay?”

“I changed it just before Christmas. Anton John Williams.”

“Why Anton?”

Anton blinked. It wasn’t a question he’d been expecting, and it gave him a momentary pause. “Um. Because I liked Natasha sounding kind of Russian. So I wanted a sort of Russian-esque name, you know?”

“Makes you sound like a spy,” Jude said. “I was named by a family joke.”

“Eh?”

“My nana—Nana O’Brien—she was a raging Catholic and used to complain my mum and dad were going to be raising Jewish babies if they kept having them in a Jewish area, and we ought to move back to Dublin, where my mum’s from. We lived round the corner from a synagogue then, I think that’s where Nana O’Brien got the idea. Anyway, they expected me to be a girl so had a girly name all ready, and when I popped out with a penis, they figured calling me Jude would piss Nana O’Brien off.”