This was Liza for you. All mouth and no trousers. Dulcie, who was leaning into the mirror trying out a smoky Clinique eyeshadow, said, ‘What Liza’s trying to tell you is that Phil’s the one who’s got himself a lady-who-does. Except we aren’t talking vacuum cleaners and I don’t think you can call her a lady.’
‘That isn’t fair,’ Pru sounded almost. angry. ‘Blanche is a hard worker. Just because her clothes are a bit ... well, a bit skimpy—’
‘I’m not talking about her clothes,’ said Liza.
‘And she isn’t only a hard worker,’ Dulcie put in, ‘she’s fast, too.’
Liza took the plunge.
‘Look, I saw them. Having lunch together on New Year’s Day.’
Pru’s face was white. ‘No you didn’t. Phil was working. He told me.’
‘I saw them. And I heard them. He’s having an affair with her.’ Liza shook her head. ‘I’m sorry.
I wish it wasn’t true, but it is.’
Dulcie thought she might buy herself one of these Clinique eyeshadows. She couldn’t bring herself to look at the expression on Pru’s face. Downstairs the Hoover was switched off.
Moments later there was a tap on the bedroom door.
‘All done, Pru. I’m off.’
Pru rose slowly to her feet and went to the door. Liza and Dulcie exchanged alarmed glances.
Liza swallowed. Dulcie held her breath.
‘Blimey, are you all right, love? You’re as white as a sheet.’
‘I’m fine, Blanche. I’ll come down with you. You’ll want your money.’
Dulcie, wearing too much eyeshadow, collapsed on the bed.
‘Will she kill her in the kitchen, d’you think?’
It was what Liza had had in mind at the Songbird. She moved across the room and opened the door a fraction. ‘If we hear a scream, we go down,’ she told Dulcie.
But all they heard was the low murmur of voices, the sound of Blanche’s high heels tip-tapping across glossy parquet, and the front door slamming shut.
Dulcie and Liza raced to the window in time to see Blanche, now wearing a red leather bomber jacket over her green top and short white skirt, making her way jauntily to the end of the road.
Pru reappeared in the bedroom doorway. She watched them watching Blanche leave.
‘No, I didn’t say anything to her, if that’s what you’re wondering.’
‘But Pru—’
‘Don’t. I like Blanche. She’s friendly and she’s good company when I’m here on my own.’
‘But—’
‘And I love Phil.’ She was still pale but her jaw was clenched, her expression defiant. ‘He’s my husband and I love him. What was my New Year’s resolution, can you remember?’
Of course they remembered.
‘Well, I’m sticking to it,’ said Pru. ‘I’m going to stay married. I still don’t believe what you told me about him and Blanche, but even if it is true, it doesn’t have to be the end of the world.
Certainly not the end of a perfectly good marriage.’
Liza had to say it.
‘Pru, it is true.’
Her grey eyes bright with tears, Pru demanded, ‘Did you see them actually doing it?’
‘Practically. She had her shoes off, and her foot in his—’
‘Don’t say it!’ Her voice rose to a shriek, her hands went up, stopping Liza in her tracks.
‘Anyway, I’ve already told you. There are worse things a man can do than have an innocent fling. If you hadn’t seen them, no one would have known anything. If you hadn’t told me, I would never have found out.’
‘Pru, how can a fling be innocent when you’re married to the man?’ Liza blurted out. ‘He’s cheating on you, for God’s sake! I know how upset you must be, but—’
‘Don’t lecture me,’ Pru said coldly. ‘How can you possibly know how I feel? You’ve never had a proper relationship in your life.’
‘That went well,’ said Dulcie conversationally when they were back in Liza’s car. ‘Oh yes, I’d call that a great morning’s work. A raging success.’
Liza shook her head. ‘How can she stand it? How can she hear that kind of news and stay so calm?’
‘She isn’t calm.’ Leaning across from the passenger seat, Dulcie commandered the rear-view mirror. ‘How about a spotof shopping?’ she said brightly. ‘I want to buy one of these eyeshadows. This colour really suits me.’
‘How can you be so shallow?’
Dulcie grinned. ‘Sallow? I’m not sallow, I’m tanned.’
Pru sat in the middle of the bed surrounded by photograph albums. Each album was full of pictures of herself and Phil, separately and together, at home or abroad, in Cornwall, in Tunisia, in Scotland, swimming, sunbathing,
