Lindsay, struggling with a mixture of anger, disappointment, and hurt, abruptly sat down, followed by the other three.

“When did you get back? And where have you been?” Cordelia asked. Even to herself, her questions sounded empty and irrelevant. But she didn’t know what else to say. Seeing Lindsay again so unexpectedly had left her floundering in a welter of emotions that she could neither separate nor identify.

“I got back a week ago,” Lindsay replied in weary tones. “I tried to phone a couple of times en route, but I kept getting the answering machine, and it didn’t seem the appropriate way to break the silence. When I got to London, I went straight to the house, but you weren’t there. I rang your mother, but she didn’t seem to know where you were. Your agent said you’d gone away for a couple of weeks, she wasn’t sure where either, so rather than hang about in London on the off-chance that you’d be back, I drove up to Yorkshire, gave Deborah her van back, and collected my MG. Then I went to see my parents and came back to Glasgow. I’ve been in Italy. By myself, which is more than I can say for you,” she added bitterly.

“My God, you’ve got a nerve,” Cordelia said. “You vanish off the face of the earth for nine bloody months and you expect to come home like the prodigal daughter and find everything exactly the way it was?”

“Obviously I was wrong, wasn’t I? You knew exactly why I went to ground. For God’s sake, I left a letter explaining what the hell was going on. And I sent you a card to let you know I was safe.”

“One poxy card in nine months! I could recite it from memory. “Weather stunning. Natives friendly. Hope to get over to London to see you soon, but life is hectic right now. Be patient!” Cordelia flashed back sarcastically.

“I was trying to protect you. I didn’t want them leaning on you to turn me in,” Lindsay replied defensively.

“How noble!” Cordelia retorted, gray eyes cloudy with anger, generous mouth uncharacteristically pursed.

“I did what I thought was right. I didn’t expect you to jump into bed with someone else the minute my back was turned,” Lindsay accused.

“What the hell was I supposed to do? Answer me that! How long was I supposed to wait before I started to put my life back together again? Have you any idea how much time, energy, and money I spent trying to find you? I rang everyone I could think of, I went everywhere I thought you might be. I even went to bloody New York!”

“And how long did it take you to steal Jackie’s girlfriend?”