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She stared open-mouthed ‘What do you mean, in love with him?’
‘Just what I say They were lovers I found out after the funeral, but out of respect for Mu to anyone’
Ruby stared up at the laughing stone cherubs, their innocent cheeks plu fountains Her head sith all this news So that hat this was all about Claudio’s jealousy had been driving him all these years And Coral had never told anyone about it How could she tell people that her husband had been gay? That brave, spirited woman must have suffered so much And no one had known She was a force of nature—an inspiration And now she was her mother-in-law, too
‘Are you saying that’s what drove your father to alcohol?’
‘I’ that my dad was mixed up He put his whole life into the bank and his fa deeply unhappy in him, and in the end it’s what’s killed hiay—that’s why some of those old clients have left him’
‘And some people can’t accept that? How ridiculous Of all the underhand things Claudio’s done, he’s now being punished for being himself’
‘Yes, and, much as I want to build up the bank, I don’t want to schmooze with people who hate like that So I’ve decided’
She heard the words And the silence that followed
She turned ‘You’ve decided what?’
‘I’ve decided that if Arturo wants to e, that’s fine If he doesn’t, that’s also fine Because I’ to take the bank to market, e I’ to lose my life to it any more’
She stared around the gardens ‘But ill you do? Are you going to go back to sport?’
He lifted her hand in his, wove their fingers together The gold bands glinted in the sunlight
‘There are options—but that depends on you We’re going to have a baby One of us is going to have to look after it while the other goes to work—that’s how I see it If you want to dance I’ll stay hoo to work’
The war on Tall poplars swayed their ambivalence in the sunshine, this way or that way Grass stood up in straight neat rows and the fountains bubbled contentedly The Croydon park she’d once played in was a thousand raffiti walls, noon benches, heads deep in their phones