‘Doll’s house!’ Alex said, seeing Bellam’s. ‘Quick, before they sell out of number five.’

‘Number four,’ Corinne objected. ‘That’s what I promised her.’

‘That’s a little out of date,’ Alex said cautiously.

‘What have you been up to?’

‘Who? Me?’ Under her suspicious gaze he confessed, ‘Mitzi and I discussed it and came to a joint decision that number five was a better choice.’

‘You mean you bribed her?’

‘Bribed is a harsh word.’

‘But true.’

‘Let’s hurry,’ he said diplomatically.

Just inside the shop they found a counter with a sale of tiny Christmas trinkets that nobody had bought. To Corinne’s surprise Alex lingered there a surprisingly long time, but she didn’t see whether he bought anything because an assistant asked her if he could be of help and she hurried to claim the doll’s house.

Alex secured the last number five available and bore it out of the shop in triumph, refusing the shop’s suggestion of delivery.

‘Next Monday?’ Alex echoed, aghast. ‘If I don’t take it home now I won’t live that long.’

The box was so big that it blocked his view, and Corinne had to guide him into the elevator, then out and to the car.

‘A bit to the left-bit more-stop.’

‘Corinne, I can’t see a thing,’ came a muffled voice from behind the box.

‘It’s all right, trust me. Take two steps forward. Oh, dear!’

‘What does “Oh, dear!” mean?’ came a plaintive cry.

‘There are some steps just ahead. Go slowly. That’s it. Put your foot down very carefully.’

‘I didn’t need telling that!’

‘Now another one-and another-just one more. Now you’re on land again. Walk forward.’

‘Will you please stop laughing?’

‘Who’s laughing?’ she chuckled, opening the back of the car so that he could edge the box through and finally release it.

‘I need something to eat after that,’ he said.

They found a café and tucked into fish and chips.

‘That’ll teach me to make rash promises,’ he said, grinning. “She never warned me it was almost as big as a real house.”

‘Alex,’ she said abruptly, ‘how long can you stay?’

‘That’s up to you.’

‘As long as you like. I have to return to work on Monday, but there’s no reason for you to go.’

‘Work?’

‘Yes, I’ve got a job.’

‘Don’t I give you enough to live on? You should have said-’

‘You give me far more than I need. That’s why I can afford to work part-time. I get the kids off to school first, then I go in to work. In the afternoon my neighbour collects them and they stay with her until I come home. Don’t pull a face. They like going there. She’s got a dog they can play with.’

‘Where do you work?’

‘A lawyer’s office. It’s really interesting. Eventually I thought I could train and get some qualifications.’

‘Be a lawyer, you mean?’

‘Yes. Not just yet. In five or six years, when the children are more independent. For the moment I just do part-time secretarial work to get the feel of it. I took a computer course and my boss says I’m the best in the office.’

‘How long will your training take?’

‘About four years to pass all the exams. I reckon I’ll be qualified about ten years from now.’

He was silent for so long that Corinne thought he was about to fight her on this, and braced herself to stand up to him. She didn’t want to fight, but nor was she going to yield.

But all he said was, ‘You must be brilliant if you did that computer course so quickly.’

‘I started doing it six months ago. I used the computer you bought for Bobby.’

‘Six months? While we were together?’

‘Uh-huh!’

It was painful, like discovering that she’d had a secret life-which, in a way, he supposed she had.

‘And you made sure you didn’t tell me?’

‘No, Alex, I didn’t “make sure” of not telling you. I’d gladly have told you if you’d shown any interest, or even been there. But you were such an absentee that I could have got away with murder. I could have had a dozen lovers and you’d never have suspected.’

‘Very funny.’

‘Don’t glare at me. Many men who live for their work secretly know that their wives are getting up to every kind of mischief behind their backs. But my furtive trysts were with a computer. My “clandestine mail” came from a correspondence course, and you never surprised my guilty secret because it never occurred to you that I was interesting enough to have one.

‘Well, I had, and I passed with very high marks. My boss is very glad to have me around. They’ve just had a load of state-of-the-art machines delivered and I’m the only one who knows what to do with them. I can’t tell you how-’ She stopped suddenly.

‘How proud that made you?’ he suggested.

‘No, how sad it made me. There was nobody to tell.’

He nodded. ‘And you need someone to tell your triumphs to or they don’t amount to much. I always told things to you. Nobody else’s opinion ever mattered as much as yours.’

‘I’d have loved to tell you, but I knew it would look very trivial to the boss of Mead Consolidated.’

After a moment he asked, ‘Does Jimmy know?’

‘Only since he came here last week.’

‘And I suppose he’s rooting for you?’

‘Yes, he thinks it’s great.’

Alex was silent. He was afraid to ask any more about Jimmy. Instead he said, ‘You’ve got the rest of your life pretty well mapped out, haven’t you?’

‘It’s good to have a goal.’

‘Yes, I see that. Ten years-heck! I don’t know anyone who plans that far ahead.’

‘I must. I’m thirty already. I have to make the most of my time.’

‘Where do I come into your plans?’

‘You’re still the children’s father.’

‘I’m still your husband, and I want to go on being your husband.’

‘Alex, nothing’s going to change. You are as you are. What’s the point of saying all this? I tried to explain when we broke up, and you weren’t listening then, either.’

Alex sighed. ‘Yes, I was. I know it didn’t seem like it, but I heard. You were saying you were better off without me.’

Dumbly she shook her head. It was less a denial than an attempt to fend off confusion.

‘I never said that,’ she said at last. ‘And I never, never will. Not with all the things I remember.’

‘What do you remember?’ he asked gruffly.

‘You, as you were when I met you,’ she said wistfully. ‘You were wonderful-the most wonderful, generous, loving man in the world.’

Her words hurt him unbearably. ‘I’m still the same-’ he pointed to himself ‘-in here.’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ she said sadly. ‘It’s a long time since I’ve known what was happening in there.’

‘Nothing’s changed. Not towards you. Tell me it’s the same with you. Or can’t you say it?’ His voice was ragged.

‘Yes.’ She sighed. ‘I can say it. But we’re not youngsters now, and it’s not enough.’

‘Are you happy?’ he asked abruptly.

‘I don’t know,’ she said slowly. ‘I’m not sure it really matters.’

He realised that she had altered in some indefinable way. There was a calm about her now, as though she had settled something that had long been troubling her.

‘Alex,’ she said suddenly, ‘will you tell me something honestly?’

‘Fire away.’

‘But I mean honestly. No polite lies. No gilding the lily. The unvarnished truth.’

‘All right.’

‘Why did you arrive here early and stay late?’

He hesitated, knowing that he was going to confirm her worst suspicions. Yet she’d asked for honesty and he could give her no less.

‘Something fell through,’ he said reluctantly. ‘Craddock set up a party in the Caribbean, to settle the contract. Then he got ill.’

She faced him. ‘And if he hadn’t got ill?’

It was the question that he’d dreaded, but he said, ‘Then I wouldn’t have come at all.’

She didn’t seem to react, only nodded slightly, as though something had been confirmed.

It made him burst out, ‘But I did come, and I found myself talking to my son, who didn’t know it was me. And I found out a lot of things I didn’t know before. Maybe it’s my fault that I didn’t, but I know them now. It makes everything different.’

‘Between you and the children. Not between you and me.’

‘But it can if we let it. Corinne, come home. I want to try again. Don’t you want that too, in your heart?’

‘I can’t come back to that soulless place, Alex. I hated it. My home is here.’

‘Then I’ll come here.’

‘Here? You mean move into where I’m living now?’

‘It doesn’t matter as long as we’re together. If we stay here you’ll still have your job and-’

‘Wait, Alex, please. I know you when you’ve set your heart on something. You go bull-headed for it without thinking it through. How long would it be before things went wrong again? I know you’ve understood things these last few days, but that isn’t the complete answer you seem to think.’

‘But if we still love each other-’

‘I do still love you, but-’

‘But you think I’m beyond redemption,’ he said wryly.

‘You don’t need redemption. I think you might need a different kind of wife-one who can enjoy the entertaining you want, and wear glamorous clothes, and be a credit to you.’

‘To blazes with that!’ he said impatiently. ‘None of that stuff matters. I want you, and the children. My God!’ He was growing angry. ‘You’ve not only mapped out your own life but mine too. I’m headed for a trophy wife, am I? You’d better tell me her name now, because I’m sure you’ve picked her out.’

‘Calm down!’

‘I’m damned if I will! What do you suggest-a luscious little blonde with a cleavage, or a busty brunette who’ll marry me for my gold card? Do you think I want anyone like that after being married to you, or is that all you think I’m worth?’

‘I’m sorry,’ she said in anguish. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’