And the style was a logical development from everything Cordelia had done before. It was so stripped down, so lacking in decoration. Yet it somehow managed to be rich at the same time, the sort of writing that forced you to read slowly because you wanted it to last. Lindsay felt a new respect. She’d always been impressed by Cordelia’s careful plotting and her scrupulous use of language. But with this book, she had achieved her real potential.

The book dropped into her lap. She felt hurt that she’d been cut out of the process of creating this book, and of the joy Cordelia must have felt in it. Lindsay knew her reactions were childish and maudlin, but that didn’t make them any less real. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t hear the front door opening. Sophie called out, “Anybody home?” and, seeing the light in the study, she walked in. At once, she registered the fallen book and Lindsay’s misery. Dropping her briefcase, Sophie sat down by Lindsay’s side and pulled her into her arms. “It hurts, doesn’t it?” she murmured.

The sympathy destroyed the last remnants of Lindsay’s self-control, and the tears in her eyes overflowed down her cheeks. She shook with sobs as Sophie calmly stroked her back, saying nothing, letting her cry herself out. Eventually, Lindsay pulled brusquely away, rubbing at her eyes with her fists. “I’m sorry,” she gulped. “It all got too much.”

“Want to talk about it?” Sophie asked.

“What’s to say? Reading this, I’m not surprised I’ve lost her. Do you know, I didn’t have the faintest idea she was working on this? She must have been researching it before I had to do a runner. But I was so wrapped up with what I was doing I never even noticed,” Lindsay said unsteadily.

“No point in blaming yourself,” Sophie said. “You had your own problems at the time. You were under a lot of pressure too.”

“That’s no excuse,” Lindsay muttered. She was wallowing in self-pity, and no amount of good sense was going to interfere with her self-indulgence.

“Stop beating yourself up, Lindsay. These things happen,” Sophie sighed. Then she adroitly shifted the subject, knowing it was the best way to dig Lindsay out of her gloom. “Look at me and Helen. Toward the end, we were living separate lives. Half the time, I didn’t know what was happening in her world, and she was so revolted by mine that she acted like she didn’t even know what I did for a living.”

“But you two always seemed so supportive of each other,” Lindsay said, diverted from her own misery by this revelation, just as Sophie had planned.