insignificant, the more significant it became. Liza wished now she’d told Dulcie straight away.
‘Okay.’ She hesitated. ‘But the only reason I didn’t say it before was because I didn’t think it would last.’
Trembling, Dulcie lit a cigarette.
‘Go on.’
‘Her name’s Claire Berenger. She’s Kit’s sister,’ said Liza. Dulcie screamed. The foul-smelling cigarette landed in her glass of wine.
‘You lit the wrong end,’ said Pru as the filter sizzled and went out.
‘How could you know that and not tell me?’ Dulcie shouted. Pru jumped – she hadn’t had time to tell her – but Dulcie wasn’t yelling at her, thankfully. She was yelling at Liza.
‘I’ve just said, I thought it wouldn’t last. There didn’t seem much point.’
Liza was on the defensive. Dulcie could imagine why. She had never felt so betrayed.
‘But now you know it will last, because she makes him so fantastically happy.’ Dulcie spoke through gritted teeth. Hot on the heels of betrayal came a great surge of jealousy. She imagined the cosy dinner parties for four, Liza and Kit sitting around a candlelit table with Patrick and Claire, gossiping together, about her.
Laughing at her.
And now that I’ve been dumped by Liam, Dulcie felt sick at the thought, they can even feel sorry for me, too .. .
‘You’re supposed to be my friend,’ she hissed across the table at Liza. ‘I thought you were my friend! What’s happened – did it all change while I wasn’t looking?’ Dulcie’s eyes flashed with contempt. ‘Are you Claire’s friend now?’
‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Liza defensively. ‘I’ve met her a couple of times, that’s all. She seems okay. Not dazzling, but ... nice. You can’t not like her,’ she struggled to explain to a stony-faced Dulcie, ‘because there’s nothing to dislike.’
‘I met her too, don’t forget. She looks like an overgrown Girl Guide,’ sneered Dulcie.
‘I used to be a Girl Guide,’ said Pru.
But Dulcie wasn’t listening. Her overwrought imagination had moved on. Now, instead of picturing Liza and Claire having a good old girlie gossip, she saw Liza and Patrick indulging in a meaningful heart-to-heart:
‘Oh, Liza, I never knew I could feel like this,’ Patrick confided. ‘Being with Claire is just incredible. She’s made me the happiest man in the world.’
‘I know, I can see she has,’ Liza murmured, ‘and I’m so glad for you. You deserve it, after everything you had to go through with Dulcie. You and Claire make a brilliant couple. She’s lovely, Patrick. You really are the perfect match.’
‘I can’t believe this,’ snapped Dulcie, fumbling in the soggypacket for yet another cigarette. ‘I can’t believe you’ve been sneaking off behind my back, whispering about me to my husband—’
‘Oh come on.’ Liza heaved an exasperated sigh. ‘You don’t seriously imagine I’d do that. Grow up, Dulcie!’
‘Me? Me grow up?’ Dulcie jabbed herself in the chest. ‘Oh right, that’s a good one,’ she jeered.
‘You’re the one making an idiot of yourself with a boy ten years younger than you are, but for some reason I’m the one who needs to grow up!’
Liza went very still. All the colour had drained from her face. Pru, in the middle of mopping the wine-logged table top, realised this had gone far beyond the usual level of good-natured bickering.
‘Okay,’ said Liza, ‘it’s nine years actually, but point taken.’ Her voice was low and not altogether steady. ‘Now let me just say this. Liam might be a jerk of the first order but he was right about one thing. You definitely need to get yourself a life.’
‘What—?’
‘Because you are wasting the one you’ve got, and it isn’t doing you any favours,’ Liza continued remorselessly. ‘What Liam said was true: you don’t do anything. You’re bored out of your skull and you don’t even know it. I mean, what’s the plan, Dulcie? When we’re sixty and we look back over our lives, what will you be able to say?’ Mimicking Dulcie’s flippant manner, she chirruped, ‘Well, I was good at shopping and brilliant at telling lies ...’
Pru stared in horror as Dulcie, red-cheeked, leapt to her feet.
‘You are a bitch,’ Dulcie shouted at Liza, ‘and you are way too old for Kit Berenger—’
‘At least I’d never dream of telling a man I was pregnant—’
‘He’s too young for you, he’s too young for you—’
‘And Patrick’s definitely well rid of you—’
‘STOP IT!’ shrieked Pru, launching herself across the table and pushing herself between the two of them like a boxing referee. She grabbed one of Dulcie’s wrists and shook it, forcing Dulcie back into her chair. ‘Just stop this AT ONCE.’ Dulcie rubbed her wrist. Ouch, it really hurt.
‘Why should I? She started it.’
‘I did not start it,’ Liza snapped back. She glared at Dulcie. ‘This is all your fault. Just because you were dumped by Liam.’
Liam. Dulcie conjured up a mental picture of him playing a brilliant backhand cross-court volley, blond hair flying, eyes flashing .. .
She closed her eyes. No, this had nothing to do with Liam. When Dulcie didn’t speak, Liza rose to her feet. Pointedly she addressed her words to Pru.
‘Time to go.’
