I think if I’d hesitated I’d have fled to my room. But I was gripped by some strange urge to justify myself. I got to my feet and walked across the room towards her table. She saw me coming. The green of her eyes was caught in the sunlight from the window. She looked into my face and then her gaze fell to my leg. I saw her frown and she turned away towards the window again. I was at her table now, standing over her, seeing the sunlight colouring the soft gold of her hair and the way her hands were clenched on her bag.
‘Do you mind if I sit down for a minute?’ I asked, and my voice was trembling.
She didn’t stop me, but as I pulled out the chair opposite her, she said, ‘It’s no good, Dick. ‘She had spoken in a tone of pity.
I sat down. Her face was in profile now and I saw she was older, more mature. There were lines in her forehead and at the corners of her mouth that hadn’t been there before. ‘Eight years is a long time,’ I said.
She nodded, but said nothing.
Now that I was here, sitting opposite her, I didn’t know what to say. No words could bridge the gulf between us. I knew that. And yet there were things I wanted to say, things that couldn’t have been written. ‘I hope you’re well,’ I said inanely.
‘ Yes,’ she answered quietly.
‘And happy?’
She didn’t answer and I thought she hadn’t heard. But then she said, ‘You had all there was of happiness in me, Dick.’ She turned and looked at me suddenly. ‘I didn’t know about the leg. When did that happen?’
I told her.