Eerily blind to us, those spiders, squatting there, clutching their lace. I walked with care, head bowed, flinching. It was the end of the summer, late August, and I’d come to Sudeley for the impending birth. At last came the opportunity to make amends as best I could, to do my utmost for her. To be everything to her, I hoped. My boys, of course, had stayed home, because this was women’s business. Harry had said nothing. What he knew of what had happened to Elizabeth, and what he made of what he knew, I had no idea. He hadn’t said if she’d written, and I hadn’t asked. He didn’t seem himself, though. He often didn’t hear me when I spoke to him and when he did, he often didn’t seem to understand. Time, I told myself: it’ll take time. Me, I hadn’t missed Thomas once, not even for a heartbeat, since I’d last been at Sudeley. As for missing what we used to do together, well, I’d begun to think differently; I’d begun to think how it might be to be married again. That was new for me.
