‘Some of the sonnets are written to a young man,’ David said. ‘When Diana came home with Constance, I was shocked to know they were in love, physically shocked. And maybe even a little jealous—of Diana or of Constance, I don’t know. But D was so extraordinarily happy and clear about going into medicine that it would have been stupid to question her choices. I found it hard to be around them, and not just because they made your mother uneasy. I envied them, I think, and I felt shut out. Before Diana left, I was the most important person in her life. We didn’t have any gradual time to get used to the changes.’

‘So you never really had any doubt they were lovers, even at the beginning?’

‘I didn’t put it to myself in those terms,’ David said and then added, ‘until your mother did.’

‘Maybe she never knew how you really felt,’ Laura said. ‘How many years have I been married to Jack? And I didn’t know until just the other night what an ignorant bigot he thought I was. Oh, he put it much more tactfully than that, but that’s what he meant.’

David shook his head.

‘But I am,’ Laura insisted. ‘Except when anything touches me, I don’t think for myself. I just soak up attitudes like a sponge.’

‘We all do that.’

‘You know,’ Laura said, ‘I don’t even know how you vote.’

David laughed. ‘I haven’t voted for years.’

‘Mother always did.’

‘I know. That’s why I didn’t. I don’t have strong political views. She did, and it seemed silly for me to cancel them. Anyway, closet socialists haven’t a hope in our riding.’

‘That’s exactly what Jack said you were!’

On the way home, David made a mental note to buy Laura some fresh crab for Christmas. It would be too smelly under the tree, but he could wrap it in Christmas paper and put it in the fridge. Men must almost forget what they don’t like to eat, not having been served it all their married lives.

‘What extraordinary creatures you women are,’ he said.

Laura glanced over at him quizzically, but he simply shook his head, not knowing quite how to put what he meant. Had Constance and Diana ever actually said they liked fish?