“It’s all people are talking about, you know,” he said. “Don passing away like that.”
Vanessa rolled Nelly’s lead around her hand as she rose to her feet. Herbert hadn’t averted his eyes while she’d worked to detach it, looming over her, imposing and daunting. The room was still bathed in darkness, but it felt oppressive suddenly, as if the walls were threatening to close in around her.
“Yes, I… I imagine it would be,” she offered lightly.
“Yes,” Herbert echoed. “And there’s poor Margaret, sitting at home, all alone. Gave up some of the best years of her retirement looking after him. Don’t imagine she resented it though, oh no. After all, that’s what all the best women do, isn’t it? Look after their men?”
Look after their menVanessa started to edge away from him, a renewed sense of cla
