Bunny thought dejectedly of the way the local press had sensationalized the story, of her own family reacting with such horror, of how Margaret hadn’t been able to get rid of her quickly enough. It had just been easier, at the start, to pretend and conceal, to bury Rachel somewhere deep down inside her. ‘I just . . . I didn’t want what happened then to be the biggest thing about me,’ she replied. ‘I didn’t want to put you off. I didn’t want you to flinch every time I picked up a knife to chop vegetables, or for you to doubt me, or look at me in a different way.’ She could feel those tears again, gathering at the corners of her eyes. ‘I was just trying to put the past behind me and start again. And when you misunderstood my name that first time . . .’ She bit her lip. ‘Look, we’d only just met, I didn’t know that I was going to fall in love with you and move in. And after a while it was too hard to go back and correct you. That’s all. I’m sorry. I was scared I would ruin everything.’ A small, miserable laugh escaped her throat. ‘Turns out I managed that, anyway.’

There was silence for a moment, interrupted by Elsie’s loud voice from the left. ‘Well, you know what my bowels are like,’ she was saying dourly.

‘Yes, love,’ her visitor replied with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. ‘Yes, I do.’

Dave was still so het up he hadn’t noticed the conversation on the other side of the curtain. ‘But it’s not like you did anything to be ashamed of,’ he said in confusion. ‘He attacked you – and you defended yourself. As would anybody, in that situation. What you did, it was just self-preservation, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes,’ Bunny replied. ‘Although . . .’ She sighed, feeling the pounding in her head increase. ‘Dave, I’ve got to be honest with you, I did really hate him by then,’ she added in a low voice.

‘I’m not surprised you did. I bloody hate him as well,’ Dave said passionately. ‘In fact, I’ve a good mind to find out which prison he’s currently languishing in and—’

It had suddenly gone very quiet in the beds on either side, Bunny realized, and she took his hand to silence him, wary of the furious eavesdropping that was almost certainly taking place. ‘Sshh,’ she said. ‘Maybe this isn’t the most private place to discuss it.’

He clasped her hand between both of his. ‘I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that, anyway,’ he said quietly. ‘It sounds absolutely horrendous. And I understand why you wanted a new start. But you can talk to me, you know, love. About anything at all. I’m on your side – always will be.’