There was a single sob, and he had to fight for breath:
“I used to walk up and down all night in front of her house, when she was ill.”
“But that’s over. In time....”
She rose and stirred the fire to a blaze.
“In time...” Eric murmured. He did not want to look after any one. Barbara had destroyed his faith in women.
“It won’t be our first big fight, Eric. In a different way I’ve been fighting all my life. Father. And you. And the babies. And Sybil. I thought everything had come out right, before the war; if you’d been a little bit stronger, Eric, it would have been perfect. When the war came, it was a bigger fight than I’d ever had. You were ill... and I knew you weren’t happy. And anything might have happened to Geoff and Basil. And then, of course, your father’s illness....”
Eric slid on to the floor, resting his head against her knee and gently turning her rings from side to side.
“You don’t get much rest, mother.”
“I’m happier when I have one of you to look after.”
“I feel I’ve been such a brute to you all.”