They drove down the long road that led up to the castle. The car slipped occasionally on the wet cobblestones. The beams of the headlamps became the spotlights in which bugs ballroom danced and barely pierced the gloomy depths of the thick pine forest. They cleared the final bend and saw the Jacobean castle ahead of them, as squat and solid as McEwan remembered it.
Helen was waiting beneath the porch roof and came down to meet them. She opened a large golfing umbrella to ward off the rain. The wind blew her dark hair into strands across her pale face and red lips. “Hello again,” she said. “Did you have a safe journey?”
“Yes, thank you,” said Kate. “But then I wasn"t driving.” She smiled and Helen smiled back.
“Please, come in out of the rain.” They crossed the drive beneath the flimsy s
