Diana was relieved, for Jill was the only person they had ever felt required to include in what was otherwise a sweetly private day. One reassurance in including David in their lives was his absorption in his own family. Diana could trust that he would disappear into it on every ritual occasion.

‘I must go,’ Jill said, moving to Constance, whom she kissed on the mouth.

At the door, Diana helped her on with her coat.

‘You would call …?’ Jill asked.

‘Of course, you know that,’ Diana said.

‘Anything,’ Jill said.

Diana doubted that without doubting Jill’s sincerity. She needed Jill only for the long haul, which was her talent.

‘Who was that at the door?’ Constance called.

‘Jill,’ Diana answered, ‘just leaving.’

Constance looked down at her memory board and crossed off Jill’s name, the last entry of the day.

‘It must be time for bed.’

Constance went upstairs while Diana put the hardly touched food away, knowing that Constance would welcome her tonight, innocent of the source of her desire, as perhaps she always had been, even in their early years when Diana accused her of bringing her whole day’s accumulation of lust into their bed. ‘What better place for it?’ Constance had asked. Diana had had to grow old and lame, not even able to hurry up the stairs, to accept desire as the gift that it was, no matter who happened to bring it into the house.

‘You didn’t like babies when you were a girl,’ David said to Diana as they sat by the fire with Constance.

‘I certainly didn’t like those babies,’ Diana said. ‘What I really didn’t like was seeing what a prison sentence they were for Mother … and realizing that we must have been, too. I couldn’t have borne her life.’

‘Do you think she was unhappy?’ David asked.

‘No, not once she married again. Oh, I’m not sure she wanted those children all that much. They were to make up for Hugh’s having to put up with us. But there wasn’t really anything else she wanted to do.’

‘I never thought she was happy with Hugh,’ David said. ‘She hardly seemed to miss him during the war.’

‘She had you.’

‘Cock of the walk again for four years,’ David said.

‘I never imagined it was fun for you,’ Diana said.

‘It should have been, but at that silly age I wasted time being jealous of all the fun you and Hugh were having. The way you both wrote about it, all theatres and concerts and museums for you, Italian seaside resorts and lovely old hill towns for Hugh. You know, I don’t think I ever believed Hugh saw action until they delivered him home.’

‘He might have lived on for years,’ Diana said. ‘There are still a few in the veterans’ Hospital.’