‘I should have had it out in the open. I should have got her antidepressants.’ He straightened up. ‘I should have got the sleeping pills for her.’ ‘She didn’t ask you to do so, did she?’ He shook his head. ‘She didn’t want you to bear any guilt in this. She arranged that you would be away.’ He was silent for a while. Eventually, he nodded. ‘I hear what you’re saying, and of course you’re right. I still wonder if May helped her, thinking that perhaps I’d turn to her when Anita had gone.’ ‘I don’t think it’s so much a question of your turning to her, as of her trying to …’ Ellie hesitated. It had just occurred to her that it might never have entered May’s head that Freddie would turn to her on the rebound. Perhaps she was only being kind-hearted and helpful. Freddie said, ‘You should hear what my sister called May. “Avaricious, man-eating, husband-stealing whore.” I didn’t know what to say.’ ‘Did she say all that on the phone to May? Or to her face?’ A reluctant grin.
