Jill stepped back. Her eyes were still flinty with rage. ‘What, both times? You think I’m stupid? You fucking Stones! You want it all, don’t you? You want everything.’

‘Meaning?’ asked Nula, getting sick of this.

‘You got the morals of alley cats, the pair of you,’ said Jill.

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Nula was turning away.

Jill grabbed her arm, turned her back to face her. ‘There’s something you ought to know about. Then maybe you wouldn’t be Lady Muck any more, so up yourself. Maybe you’d remember what you’re married to. What he is.’

‘Really? So what is he then?’

‘He’s a fucking rapist.’

38

Nula’s world was crumbling into dust. Distantly, she heard the front door close behind Jill after she’d dropped her bombshell. Christ, had Gary on the door heard any of that? She hoped not. But someone was moving about out there. She went into the hall. Harlan was fiddling with one of his games down by the skirting board right outside the door. Had the kid heard?

No, Nula decided. Harlan was always in a world of his own. Harlan loved gadgets and was obsessive about them, collecting them and playing with them for hours. Once absorbed, he was totally unaware of anything going on around him. And the boy was scrupulously neat, always putting his toys away every day in their allotted box in his bedroom when he had finished with them.

Nula went back into the sitting room and closed the door. That bitch Jill. She’d be sorry, she was going to be very sorry indeed, making up stories about Charlie, lying through her teeth like that. He wouldn’t do that – would he? Rape someone? Nula’s face still stung from that slap. She was thinking of the few times she’d seen Charlie with Jill, through the gatehouse window. Just talking, he’d said. Not according to Jill, though. Jill said Charlie had forced her into sex, that he was an animal and that him and Nula deserved each other.

She felt the nausea rise again and clamped both hands to her belly. She was pregnant. The consultant at the hospital had smiled and said it was strange how these things happened; you relaxed because you thought your child-bearing days were over and then bam! You got up the duff the natural way, no problem at all. The human body was an amazing thing, he’d said. Nula was remembering the agony she’d been in when she gave birth to Milly. Afterwards, the consultant had told her it would be too dangerous for her to go through it all again. Maybe fatal. He’d also said it was extremely unlikely that she would ever conceive again. So she’d trusted his professional judgement. She hadn’t bothered with contraception.

Bloody doctors.

But this new doctor thought it would be OK. He’d been so positive of that.