Did she hear his breathing pause or was she imagining it? “What do you mean?” he said eventually, still with his back to her.

“I just thought, since you taught her, that you would have an opinion. I overheard her and Matt arguing after dinner.”

“She is an intelligent girl from what I remember, but I don’t know too much. Doesn’t come from much, but is doing her best. Scholarship, if I remember correctly.”

“She was in your class though?”

“For one year, yes, but how much do teachers really get to know their students? You see one side of them, that’s all. Now, darling, if you don’t mind…” He exaggerated a yawn that made his shoulders heave.

“Um, one more thing, have you noticed anything different about Lydia? You know, the make-up and clothes?”

“She’s just experimenting, trying new things. Millie has probably been encouraging her. It’s harmless. As long as Millie doesn’t introduce her to any of her other bad habits.”

Helen sat up straighter. “What do you mean?”

“Well, Millie can be rather rebellious and I don’t want her rubbing off on lovely, sweet Lydia. Now really, darling, I am exhausted, so can we talk about this another time?”

Helen’s jaw ached from being clenched so tightly. She turned off her lamp and shuffled down onto her pillow, but stared straight ahead into the darkness, all tiredness forgotten.

She expected to hear Hugh’s snores begin as usual. He had a knack for falling asleep as soon as his head hit a pillow or his arse a chair.

But tonight his breathing didn’t change; the snores didn’t begin.

She suspected he was staring into the dark too.

*

Hugh lay like cement, his back to Helen, listening intently for her breathing to slow and her body to do that jerky thing it always did when she dropped into sleep. It was taking longer than usual and he suspected she was doing the same, the two of them caught in a passive-aggressive battle for sleepless supremacy.

His nose began to itch, a sneeze coming, and he clenched his teeth and wriggled his nose, hoping it would go away. A sneeze now could pull her back from the brink of dropping off.

Eventually he felt her body jerk as she fell off the edge into sleep and he gave it a few more minutes before sliding gently out of bed. He slipped his feet into his still-warm slippers and rather gracefully slinked to the door. His efforts were nearly undone when his slipper caught on a scatter cushion and he stumbled, bumping against Helen’s dressing table, but he held his nerve and emerged into the hallway triumphant before exhaling audibly.