‘So yes,’ Norma said. Kelly caught but ignored the flash of gold in the corner of Norma’s brown eyes, the hint of the fox within. ‘What are we going to do?’

Kelly felt such a blush of solidarity at that ‘we’, she had to force herself not to hug the woman. Norma would hate that. To feel a positive emotion was forgivable, but to demonstrate it at the country club was beyond the pale. Kelly took a deep breath and imagined herself stepping into an icy sea.

‘May I ask you something? You’re the only person I can ask. It’s not for Gordon or me, it’s for Ben. He needs a safe place to live. You and I want the same things. For Ben.’ Kelly hated herself, just a little. ‘I wonder if you have considered taking an interest in The Lodge.’

A new expression was coming over Norma’s face: hard to read, but … fierce.

‘Have you spoken to Ron?’ she said.

‘Ron?’

‘For all our lives, Ron has looked after the finances. Women of your generation sneer at us, but I liked it that way. I felt safe. I know that makes me a traitor to our kind and all that, but you have to understand, this was the way we were brought up and we were happy with our roles.’

‘Of course, but as you said, maybe it’s time to stop letting things happen.’

‘Without speaking up,’ Norma said.

‘Without speaking up,’ Kelly repeated uncertainly. ‘You don’t need Ron’s approval for financial decisions now. You have an enduring power of attorney. You pay his nursing home bills. You hold the purse strings.’

‘Do you think I’m bad?’ Norma said suddenly. She was wiping her nose with a tissue.

‘Bad?’

‘For not having him at home?’

‘Why would anyone think that?’

Kelly’s mouth turned dry with panic. Just when she thought she had her mother-in-law on track, Norma flew off on a tangent about Ron, how he was safe in the nursing home, how the Pakis were good people underneath it all, how they loved him in spite of the way he treated them, how he would live longer if only he stayed where he was and stopped bothering her about driving.

Kelly didn’t know how to answer. No—she knew how to answer. She only had to reassure Norma, tell her that everything she had done was right. But she had to think strategically.

‘By everything you’ve done, you have saved that man’s life,’ Kelly said with great solemnity.

‘He hasn’t been well with his kidneys, and you only know the half of it.’

‘I can imagine what you went through for all those years,’ Kelly felt giddy, as if she teetered on a precipice. She waited for Norma to speak.