“I mean I wish we could have been alone.”

“Patrick, I know you must be upset about your parents, but—”

“So we could talk properly, I mean. Can you now?”

I thought her pause might hide a silent sigh. “What do you need to talk about?”

“Roy and his lady. Did you learn much about her?”

“We just chatted. They mostly did. She wasn’t with us long before I dropped her off.”

“Where?”

“The nearest station.”

“You don’t know where she was headed for.”

“I didn’t ask. Why do you want to know?”

“You said yourself we don’t know much about her.”

“I’m not so sure I ever said that, and I don’t doubt we will if they stay together.”

“Are you hoping they will? I thought you’d be bothered by the things she’s making Roy do.”

“I’m busy right now.” I thought Julia was dismissing my observation and quite possibly me as well until the sound of a door let me know that someone had looked into her office. More sharply still she said “What things, Patrick?”

“Not just visiting the places Thelma went but taking samples of them.”

“Samples,” Julia said as if it mightn’t even be a word.

“Souvenirs if you like. Some of the earth.”

“I don’t know if I like or not. Whatever gave her that idea?”

“My aunt used to do it. She kept them in jars in her studio.”

“That’s what you made such a fuss about at her funeral. You accused your parents of throwing them out.” With too little of a pause to let me speak Julia said “So Bella must have picked up the idea from you. She never met your aunt.”

“I suppose it may have come from me indirectly, but—”

“A good deal more than indirectly. Weren’t you there with her and Roy?”

I did my best to be prepared for the response I would provoke by saying “No.”

“You certainly led me to think you were. May I ask why you’d do that?”

“As I say, I wanted to discuss it when we were by ourselves.”

“I don’t know what sense that makes.” As I willed her to find it justified, her voice slowed down as though burdened by her thoughts. “Now I understand what Bella meant. She must have wanted me to realise.”

More uneasily than I could quite conceal I said “What did she tell you?”

“She said it to you and they left you to explain to me, but you didn’t.”

I recalled this style of accusation from our marriage. “Explain what?” I knew I wouldn’t learn unless I said.

“She said you’d been following them. What have you been up to, Patrick?”

“Not following in the way you mean. Just going to some of the places they’ve visited.”

“I wonder how you think I meant it. What’s this really all about?”