‘Oh, they’re old enough to make their own lunch,’ Mary said impatiently. ‘What was Laura doing there anyway?’

‘Mary, you’re holding everybody hostage, and it’s time you declared your terms.’

‘Well, everyone was holding me hostage before,’ Mary said. ‘Ted talking about leaving me, you going off without any thought of what it was like for me. It’s about time you had a little of your own back, all of you, Laura, too.’

‘Why Laura?’

‘Oh, she’s just so smug!’ Mary declared, ‘and I’m going to tell her she’s got no business in my house making lunch for my children.’

‘I asked her to.’

‘Well, what right is it of yours?’

‘Every right in the world,’ David said, ‘beginning with legalities, going on to a quite natural concern for my grandchildren.’

‘What about me? What about how I feel?’

‘I’m here,’ David said, ‘but I’m here to serve notice. I haven’t any intention of living with Ted and your children. If you’re not going to come home to look after them, other arrangements are going to have to be made.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I’m going to sell the house,’ David stated. ‘I may sell it in any case. It seems to me it’s made nothing but trouble between you and Ted.’

‘Oh, Daddy, the house has nothing to do with it!’ Mary wailed.

‘You’ll have to convince me of that,’ David said. ‘Maybe you would have needed to have this last, long fight with your mother wherever you were, but being on home territory hasn’t helped. Everybody has scores to settle with the dead. It’s part of the grieving process. But you’ve let this go on long enough to threaten to wreck your own life, and that doesn’t settle any score at all. You don’t have any time left now.’

Mary stared away from him for a moment.

‘You aren’t giving me any choice,’ she said.

‘I hope not a real one for you. I’m not going to say anything to anyone about this conversation,’ David said, using that old formula between them that gave Mary some measure of pride in negotiating peace with her mother. ‘I want you home by tomorrow morning, ready to deal with your difficulties with Ted, ready to take care of your children. You have made your point. I think Ted’s learned from it as much as he can. There’s still time to take advantage of that. But you’ve got to get out of black to do it. Your mother’s dead, long since.’