‘No, please let me finish,’ Parvez said. ‘That’s what I said a few weeks ago. But I just want you to know that now I think there was one thing you were right about. We weren’t happy. We hadn’t been happy for a long time. I do forgive you, and I do miss you, of course I miss you, but I don’t miss being unhappy. There. That’s all. I’ve said it.’

Shona looked at him with surprise. She hadn’t expected this accord, this capitulation from him so soon. How ironic, that the first thing they had managed to agree on in years, was the merits of their separation. ‘You’re not in love with me any more,’ she said with comprehension. ‘I’mglad.’

Parvez shook his head, with a rueful half smile. ‘Gol-die, you don’t understand. I will probably love you until the day I die. I always have loved you, not for your degrees or cleverness, and not for your perfectionism or your criticism, and definitely not for your cooking. I loved you despite all those things. I loved you for your heart, your good, kind heart.’ He reached over and touched her lightly on her chest, the flat of his palm resting gently above her left breast, without passion, but with tender-ness. ‘The thing is, Goldie, the way I see it, I’ve been a very lucky man. For over twenty years I got to live with the woman I loved, the woman who sacrificed everything she had to be with me.’ He paused, and withdrew his hand from her with a touch of embarrassment at his emotion. ‘But I think I deserve to spend the next twenty years with someone who loves me, with someone who doesn’t feel that being with me is a sacrifice.’

‘You’re letting me off,’ Shona said, her eyes bright with tears at his generosity. ‘You deserved so much better than me.’