shoulder and pierced the gloom. In the light of the wavering candle-flame her closely shorn head appeared gaunt, her neck thin and scrawny, and her eye sockets deeply shadowed. Only her eyes shone through like glittering marbles.
‘Well, who is going to get Bert’s house? Susannah? Not that I’d begrudge it her really. You know I hold nothing against her, even though she’s never taken to me …’
‘No, well, it’s not Susannah; it’s some old flame of his.’
Jan giggled her relief. ‘Now I know you’re teasing me. For a minute I thought –’
‘No! No I’m not, Jan. Honestly. I only wish I were.’
And Jan could see from his face that he was telling her the truth. ‘But –’ Her gaze wandered over his shoulder again. She could just about make out the tarpaulin that stretched from one side of the farmhouse to the other. It concealed a door-less, window-less construction yawning open to the winter sky. ‘I never knew Bert had an old flame. The wily old devil.’
‘Not so much of the “old”. Don’t forget he was younger than me.’
‘Yes, but he always seemed so much older, somehow, on the few occasions I met him.’ She sat back in her chair, her hands slapping down on the table. ‘Well, this is a turn-up for the books, I must say. What are we going to do now?’
‘I’m sorry, Jan, really I am.’ Frank ran a hand over his face and looked glummer than ever. ‘Why don’t you go ahead and say it: it’s all my own stupid fault? I should have been nicer to Bert while he was alive. Brotherly love and all that. Then we’d be out of this dreadful mess.’
Jan let out a sigh. ‘I never wanted to be married to a hypocrite, Frank. At least you’re always honest about your feelings.’
‘Yes, and just look where it’s got us: well and truly in the mire.’
It wasn’t in Jan’s nature to be down-hearted for long. ‘Actually,’ she pointed out, ‘apart from your air fare for the trip, we’re no worse off than we were a week ago.’
‘We’re not a jot better off, though, either.’
‘But at least we’ve got each other.’
Frank managed a smile at last. Dear old Jan. He should have known she would hold nothing against him.
He looked at the remaining goodies, unpacked in delighted haste and still scattered across the table. It had been a horrendously expensive shopping trip, all in all, but well, what the hell …
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