It was not clear to her who he’d wanted to spare, whose collapse, whose violence he had been anticipating. This business of parents and children, the relations between them, was just too complicated for her. It only confirmed the general principle she’d always suspected. She rather hoped she would get away without children of her own.
It was certainly not her job to protect his family. She must do what she could, though, to protect Rud from himself.
‘There’s only one suggestion I want to make. I think it might help the story as a whole if you could maybe heighten the contrasts. A word or two in there suggested to me that you rather liked the woman’s husband. Tell me about him.’
To her carefully concealed delight, Rud sat forward, the tension melting from his face and began to talk.
Bef
