She turned away, but that didn’t take her into better territory. Emma Johnson had clearly been lurking, waiting for her chance. ‘Kate,’ she said. ‘How nice to see you.’

‘Thank you for coming,’ Kate said mechanically.

‘How are you?’

Kate stared at the woman. What did she expect her to say? And were they really, after all these years – after so much pain and heartache – going to stand there and exchange inanities?

Well, yes, perhaps that was the British way. And, if so, she could play with the best of them. ‘I’m well,’ she said. ‘Fine.’ And then as she gazed at Emma’s concerned face, something broke inside her. It was not, after all, this poor woman’s fault that her husband had betrayed his own marriage and ruined Kate’s childhood. ‘I hated my mother, so if you want the honest truth, I don’t feel a damned thing today except relief.’

‘But that in itself can be complicated,’ Emma said, without missing a beat or appearing in any way surprised at the intrusion of raw honesty into the usual funeral small-talk. ‘You’ve lost the chance of ever having a better relationship with her and that can be a traumatic realization, however much your rational mind tells you it was never going to be possible.’

‘Maybe. How’s Helen?’

‘She’s well. Married, with two children.’ Emma smiled. ‘Like you. I just had a chat with your kids. They’re a great credit to you … I’m sorry your friendship was a casualty of those events. I hope you understand now why that was inevitable.’

If she was being truly honest, Kate hadn’t seen at all why her relationship with Helen – her best friend – had had to be sacrificed, but she knew enough about the pain of infidelity to refrain from judging another woman’s response to it. ‘She missed you terribly,’ Emma said. ‘And I guess I’ll carry the guilt of that to my grave.’

‘I don’t think there’s much point in going over this,’ Kate said. ‘You were wronged. I don’t blame you for any of it.’

‘Thank you. That’s kind,’ Emma responded. Simon appeared at Kate’s elbow. He introduced himself, but Emma didn’t linger. ‘I must let you talk to your other guests. It was nice to see you again.’

‘Sorry, you looked like you needed help,’ Simon said.

‘Thank you. My mother had an affair with her husband, so she wasn’t top of the list of people I wanted to see today.’

‘Funerals have a habit of bringing people out of the woodwork. At my father’s, not one but two mistresses turned up. I had to physically bar them from the wake.’

‘One day,’ Kate said wearily, ‘I’d love to understand why so many human beings choose to endlessly complicate their lives.’

‘Because they are easily bored, I suppose.’ He shook his head. ‘I always think people are divided between those who are drawn to emotional complication and those who prefer intellectual variety. The tragedy is when you mix someone from one group with the other.’