September

what remained of the sticky goo over the outside of the cake. She was not an expert at cake decorating and, when it was completed, it had a fairly rough-and-ready appearance, more like a newly ploughed field than anything else, but by the time she had stuck a few brightly coloured Smarties into the icing and added the single candle that was all she allowed herself, it would be quite festive enough.

She stood back to eye the finished cake, licking a few gobs of icing off her fingers. At that moment she heard a car coming up the hill and then turning into her own driveway. She looked up and through the window and saw that her visitor was Virginia, and was pleased. Virginia was on her own, and Violet was always gratified when her daughter-in-law unexpectedly dropped in, uninvited, because it meant that she wanted to come. And today was specially important, because they would have time to sit down and talk, and Violet would be able to hear all about Henry.

She went to wash her hands. Heard the front door open and close.

'I'm in the kitchen.' She dried her hands, reached to untie her apron. 'Vi!'

Violet tossed her apron aside and went out into the hall. Her daughter-in-law stood there at the foot of the stairs, and it was immediately obvious to Violet that something was very wrong. Virginia was as pale as paper, and her brilliant eyes were hard and bright, as though they burnt with unshed tears.

She was filled with apprehension. 'My dear. What is it?'

'I have to see you, Vi.' Her voice was controlled, but there was unsteadiness there. She was not far from weeping. 'I have to talk.'

'But of course. Come along. Come and sit down…' She put her arm around Virginia and led her into the sitting- room. 'There. Sit down. Be quiet for a moment. There's nothing to disturb us.' Virginia sank into Vi's deep armchair, laid her head back on the cushion, closed her lovely eyes, and then, almost immediately, opened them again.

She said, 'Henry was right. Lottie Carstairs is evil. She can't stay. She can't stay with Edie. She must go away again.'

Vi lowered herself into her own wide-lapped fireside chair. 'Virginia, what has happened?'

Virginia said, 'I'm frightened.'

'That she will do Edie some harm?'

'Not Edie. Me.'

'Tell me.'

'I… I don't quite know how to start.'

'Everything from the beginning.'

Her quiet tones had effect. Virginia gathered herself, visibly making some effort to keep control and stay sensible and objective. She sat up, smoothing back her hair, pressing her fingers to her cheeks as though she had already wept and was wiping tears away.

She said, 'I've never liked her. Just as none of us has ever liked her, or been happy with the fact that she's living with Edie. But, like the rest of us, I told myself that she was harmless.'

Violet remembered her own reservations about Lottie. And the frisson of panic she had experienced, sitting with Lottie by the river in Relkirk, with Lottie's hand closed around her wrist, the fingers strong and steely as a vise.

'But now you believe that we were all wrong?'

'The day before I took Henry to school… Monday… I took a walk with the dogs. 1 went to Dermot's to buy something for Katy, and then on and over the west bridge. Lottie appeared out of nowhere. She'd been following me. She told me that you all knew- all of you-you and Archie and Isobel and Edie. She said that you knew.'

Violet thought, oh, dear God. She said, 'Knew what, Virginia?'

'Knew that Edmund and Pandora Blair had been in love with each other. Had been lovers.'

'And how did Lottie know this?'

'Because she was working at Croy at the time of Archie and Isobel's wedding. There was a dance that night, wasn't there? She said that she followed them upstairs in the middle of the party, and listened at Pandora's bedroom door. She said that Edmund was married and had a child, but that made no difference, because he was in love with Pandora. She said that everybody knew because it was so blatantly obvious. She said that they are still in love with each other, and that is why Pandora has come back.'

It was even worse than Violet had dreaded, and for once in her life she found herself at a total loss for words. What could one say? What could one do to comfort? How to salvage a single grain of comfort from those muddy depths of scandal, stirred up by a madwoman who had nothing to do with her pathetic life but make trouble?

Across the small space that divided them, her eyes met Virginia's. And Virginia's were filled with pleading, because all she wanted was for Violet to assure her that the whole fabrication was a pack of lies.

Violet sighed. She said, with total inadequacy, 'Oh dear.'

'It's true then. And you did know.'

'No, Virginia, we didn't know. We all had a pretty shrewd idea, but we didn't know, and we never spoke about it to each other, and we all went on behaving as though it had never happened.'

'But why?' It was a cry of despair. 'Why did you all shut me out? I'm married to Edmund. I'm his wife. How did you imagine that I wouldn't find out? And from that dreadful woman, of all people. It's a sort of betrayal, as though you didn't trust me. As though you thought I was some sort of innocent child, not old enough nor mature enough to deal with the truth.'

'Virginia, how could we tell you? We didn't even know for certain. We simply suspected, and being the people that we are, we brushed it all away under the carpet and hoped that it would stay there. She was eighteen, and Edmund had known her since she was a child. But he'd been in London, and he'd married and had Alexa, and he hadn't seen Pandora for years. And then he came north for Archie's wedding, and there she was again. Not a child any longer but the most ravishing, wicked, delicious creature you've ever seen in your life. And I have an idea that she had always been in love with Edmund. When they met again, it was like an explosion of fireworks. We all saw the fireworks but we turned away and did not watch. There was nothing we could do except hope that the fireworks would burn themselves out. And it wasn't as though there was any chance of it going on for ever. Edmund had commitments in London. His wife, his child, his job. When the wedding was over, he went away, back to his own responsibilities.'

'Did he go willingly?'

Violet shrugged. 'With Edmund it's impossible to know. But I remember seeing him off, in his car, from Balnaid, and saying goodbye, and very nearly saying something more. Something ridiculous. Like 'I'm sorry' or 'Time is a great healer' or 'You'll forget Pandora,' but at the end of the day I lost my nerve and I never said anything.'

'And Pandora?'

'She went into a sort of teen-age decline. Tears, sulks, misery. Her mother confided in me, and was in the greatest distress about it all, but truly, Virginia, what could we say? What could any of us do? I suggested sending Pandora away for a little… to do some sort of a course, or perhaps go to Paris or to Switzerland. At eighteen she was still very young in many ways, and some worthwhile project… learning a language or working with children… might have diverted her misery. Given her the chance to meet other young people and the chance to get over Edmund. But I'm afraid she'd always been most dreadfully spoilt, and in a strange way her mother was frightened of Pandora's tantrums. Whether anything was ever said, I don't know. All I do know is that Pandora simply hung around Croy for a month or two, making everybody's lives utterly miserable, and the next thing was she'd run off with that dreadful Harald Hogg, rich as Croesus and old enough to be her father. And that, tragically enough, was the end of Pandora.'

'Until now.'

'Yes. Until now.'

'Were you concerned when you knew she was coming back?'

'Yes. A little.'

'Do you think they are still in love with each other?'

'Virginia, Edmund loves you.' Virginia said nothing to this. Violet frowned. 'You surely know that.'

'There are so many different sorts of love. And sometimes, when I really need it, Edmund doesn't seem to have it to give.'

'I don't understand.'

'He took Henry away from me. He said I smothered him. He said I only wanted to keep Henry because he was