She had wanted to tell him about the triplets, which was, after all, the most important news that they, as a couple, had ever received. And he had started to talk about Vuillard and auction prices and clients who she thought really did not exist at all.

She felt Matthew’s hand on her arm. ‘Elspeth?’ he asked. ‘Are you all right?’

She opened her eyes. She felt her tears returning. ‘I’m having triplets,’ she said.

Matthew remained quite still. His eyes opened wider, she thought, and one corner of his mouth moved downwards. But otherwise it was if he had suddenly frozen. Then suddenly his eyes turned upwards, and his eyelids closed.

He fell forwards, taking with him the catalogue. Elspeth let out an involuntary scream. She reached forward, but he had slipped past her and hit the floor. There was a bumping sound, like the knocking of wood on wood.

‘Matthew!’

He did not move. The catalogue was underneath his head, the picture of the Vuillard painting directly beneath his jaw, the paper crumpled.

36. Fear a’ Bhata

Since the departure of Miss Harmony, Bertie had had two new teachers. The loss of Miss Harmony had been keenly felt by the children, no more so than by Bertie, who had completely sympathised with her when, driven to distraction by Olive, the teacher had momentarily lapsed and pinched Olive’s ear. That, he thought, was something that anybody having contact with Olive could be forgiven for doing, and it seemed to him very unjust that she should leave simply on account of that. He had been pleased, though, when she had married Matthew and all the children had been invited to the wedding. Olive had been included in this invitation, which struck Bertie as an exceedingly and unnecessarily generous thing to do. It offended him that Olive had expressed no regrets over the incident – in which he felt she was entirely to blame – and indeed had made a number of exaggerated claims as to what had happened.

‘I liked Miss Harmony,’ Olive was heard to say. ‘It’s just a pity that she tried to tear my ear off.’

‘But she didn’t,’ protested Bertie. ‘It was just a little pinch, Olive. I saw her.’

‘It’s a pity she didn’t tear it off,’ Tofu interjected. ‘You deserve it, you little cow.’

‘I forgive you for those crude words,’ said Olive. ‘I forgive you, Tofu, but I’m afraid that God won’t. He’s going to really sort you out when you die. Just you wait.’

Bertie sighed. He was used to this sparring between Olive and Tofu, but he wished that it would not happen. Miss Harmony was gone, and he believed she was happy enough in her new life. There was no point, he thought, in raking over old coals, and of course they had their new teacher to get used to now that the temporary stand-in had been replaced.