‘Never too late. There’s always amateur dramatics, local groups, whether it’s acting you fancy or helping out behind the scenes …’

‘Oh, I think it is. Too late, I mean. Can’t commit to anything these days, you see, with Barb how she is. And I’d never get to grips with learning all those lines off by heart. I wouldn’t say no to a bit of a backstage tour though, next time you’re in anything local. Or is that too much to ask?’

‘Not at all. Just not sure where I’ll be working next. Or when. I’ve had … well, a spot of illness myself, you see, and had no choice really but to take some time out.’

‘Sorry to hear that. But you’ll be back, I’m sure. I imagine it’s your life, isn’t it? In the blood, so to speak.’

‘You’re not wrong there, Tom. Although I wish sometimes I’d spent a bit more time and attention on some of the other things in my life, the more important things.’

‘Family?’

Madi nodded.

‘Did you not have children?’

‘I did, yes. A boy. George. Hard to believe, but he’s almost forty now. Where did the years go?’

‘And his father?’

‘Where did he go, do you mean?’ She shrugged. ‘Didn’t even stick around for the birth.’

‘I’m sorry. That can’t have been easy.’

‘It wasn’t. Oh, he did the decent thing moneywise, was very generous in fact, I’ll give him that, but as for anything else we were persona non grata, written out of his life as if we’d never existed. He never asked to meet his son, and only saw me when work threw us together from time to time. He had another life to protect, you see, and a reputation, and we didn’t fit into that. George had to spend a lot of time with my parents while I was working. And I never had the kind of work that let me come home every night to bath him and put him to bed. I often didn’t see him for weeks at a time, but travelling about from theatre to theatre, staying in boarding houses, trying to get someone backstage to keep an eye on him while I was on, that’s no life for a kid. He was better off with his grandparents. Or so I thought at the time, but maybe I was just being selfish, not willing to give it all up. The stage sort of gets under your skin.’

‘I’m sure it must. But he doesn’t blame you, does he? You had to make a living, after all. For him, as much as for you.’

‘I’m afraid he probably does blame me, yes.’ Madi fought back a tear and turned to look out through the window, hoping Tom wouldn’t see it.

‘Oh, dear. You never remarried, I take it?’

‘Not even the once actually. Turns out George’s dad had been married to someone else all along. Which I should have known, or at least guessed. The naivety of youth! Or perhaps I preferred not to know, not to ask. But I think that made it worse somehow, him being married. My parents didn’t approve of my lifestyle, my bad choices as they called them, and not only having a baby out of wedlock but adding adultery into the mix as well was a couple of steps too far, if you know what I mean. Oh, they loved George, sure enough. No doubt of that, and they’re both long gone now, but I can’t help wondering what they filled his head with and how much of it is still in there somewhere.’