‘Be quiet!’ It came out as more of a bark than Kate had intended but it had the desired effect. Lucy swallowed whatever insult she was about to hurl. ‘Since you appear to have all your faculties today,’ Kate continued, ‘I need you to hear this. If you can’t stop insulting the staff who are caring for you, you’ll be booted out of this place. I can’t look after you at home, so you’ll have to go wherever else will take you. I’ve no idea where that might be, or what it will be like, but I’m fairly sure it won’t be in London, which means the children and I will not be able to visit you any more.’

Lucy made the journey from acid abuser to chastened child in no more than a heartbeat – and carried off both with similar conviction. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

Kate sat down heavily on the chair opposite her. Was it better when her mother was lucid? She wasn’t sure any more. She’d never been any good at riding the drastic and instantaneous personality and mood swings, which seemed to be exaggerated by her mental deterioration.

‘I know I’m going to die soon.’

‘You don’t know that, Mum.’

‘Of course I do. I may be demented, but I’m not stupid.’ Lucy now seemed about to cry.

‘Look, you’ve got to try,’ Kate said. ‘Really, really try not to insult or hurt anyone around you.’

‘I get frightened and … frustrated.’

‘I understand.’

‘One always knows that one is going to die alone. It’s in the nature of life, isn’t it? The only sure outcome. I mean, even if you have someone holding your hand at the last, you still walk the final mile all by yourself. But I never expected it would be so lonely.’

‘You’re not there yet. The doctors say you may have years.’

‘Of decline, incontinence, irrelevance. What kind of life is that?’

Kate tried to wrap her mind around the certainty that her mother’s moments of clarity would soon disappear entirely and she would die.

‘I’m sorry,’ Lucy said again. ‘You won’t believe me, but I am. My frustration gets the better of me and then I can’t seem to stop myself.’

Kate wanted to say there was nothing new in that, but she managed to hold her tongue. Normally, she’d offer to make tea and force herself to sit there for half an hour at least, but she couldn’t face it today. ‘I have to go away for a few days. Rose is at home, looking after the children, if there’s an emergency.’

Kate left without kissing her mother. She tried to suppress the idea that it would be no bad thing if Lucy did die soon.

8

YOUNG CALLUM DISPLAYED a taste for luxury on their journey to Istanbul that was most unusual in a Whitehall civil servant. They travelled business class on Turkish Airlines and their pre-booked taxi delivered them to the shameless opulence of the Hotel Kempinski on the city’s European shore.