Nobody suggested dinner.
It happened the way things happen in houses with staff and routines and a certain momentum to the day. Six o clock arrived. Mrs. Park began the particular movements that meant a meal was coming. Helena appeared from the sitting room at six thirty, saw Robert Cole standing in the entrance hall, and stopped walking.
Robert saw her.
Something moved across his face. Not guilt exactly. More like the expression of someone who has been avoiding a mirror for a long time and has just walked past one by accident.
Helena looked at him for a long moment.
Then she said, "Robert."
Just his name. But the way she said it contained an entire history. Not warmth. Not coldness. The particular tone of a woman who had loved someone's father once and had watched that person fail h
