‘Do you know, I’ve never met him properly. They’re just next door but he’s always working. I’ve heard him, in the garden, and I’ve seen him getting into his flashy car and zooming off, but we’ve never been introduced. I’ve never felt worried about her, though. And I spend a fair bit of time with her.’
Perhaps that’s not it, the relationship thing. What else could it be? I remember what she said to me when we were talking about Dot, about everybody having their secrets and not being quite who you think they are. It’s a puzzle, but I’m determined to piece it together.
Julie’s on her telephone, scrolling through potential men for her next date.
‘What about this one?’ she asks, turning the telephone around.
The photo is of a middle-aged man, his hair greying, his face lined. There’s no sparkle about him, nothing special.
‘No,’ I say. ‘Not him.’
‘You seem very sure,’ Julie says, and she sounds a bit offended. ‘Do you know him or something?’
‘No, I just don’t think he’s right, that’s all. I think you’d be better off finding out when that husband of yours is going out with his friends and then getting dolled up and accidentally on purpose running into him. He’ll see how good you look and how well you’re getting on without him and hey presto, he’ll be back.’
She studies me. ‘Really? That’s what you really think I should do?’
‘Well, you’re miserable without him, aren’t you? And I know he did the dirty on you but so many men do.’
There is silence for a minute or two, all of us mulling this over.
‘Arthur was no exception,’ I add. ‘I meant to say, earlier, when you were talking about men and their cheating.’
‘Arthur cheated on you?’ Julie asks. She sounds personally affronted.
‘Three times,’ I say. ‘Three affairs, I mean. Elsie Maybrook in 1966, Sheila Turner in 1975 and Annie James in 1988.’
It’s funny how their names have stuck. And the years, too. That first time, with Elsie, we’d been married seven years and I wasn’t surprised. If anything, I was surprised he hadn’t done it sooner. I’d turned away from him in bed so many times. Still, when I found out, when Helen from work took me to one side and told me she’d seen them together, that they’d been laughing, their lips close and their hands touching, I felt sick. I’d pushed him to it, and I’d expected it, but that confirmation made it take on a different sheen. When I confronted him, he cried. Said that he was sorry, that he loved me, that he didn’t love her. Just me. And I couldn’t blame him, could I, because I knew he was telling the truth and I hadn’t done what I’d promised when we walked down the aisle, hadn’t taken his love and given him mine in return.
‘And you knew? You knew their names and everything?’ Julie sounds totally astonished.
‘Let’s just say he wasn’t a master of subtlety,’ I say.
It’s true. He left clues for me to find, stayed out late with no excuses. All three times, he wanted me to catch him. Wanted me to confront him, so he could confront me about the loneliness he felt in our marriage. And then I think of that conversation we had, after the last time. The closest we ever came to telling one another the truth. When he said he was just trying to get me to react, to show that I loved him. That he was trying to make me jealous.
‘Well, I never would have thought it of him,’ Julie says.
And it makes me smile because she never once met him. I’ve talked about him a fair bit, though. I suppose it’s like me and her Martin. I feel I know him, too.
‘I’m so sorry, Mabel,’ Julie says. ‘Men are bastards.’
A man sitting across the carriage from us looks up, and Julie holds his gaze until he turns away.
‘One of those things,’ I say, wondering whether I’ll ever feel able to tell them the full story. The one I’ve never told anyone. Not even him. Not even myself.
We’re quiet, and I know all three of us are looking back at our own pasts. The men who’ve been part of all that has led us here.
‘Were you in love with Sarah’s father?’ I ask.
Patricia looks at me. ‘It was such a whirlwind thing. He made me feel like I was the only woman in the world. You know the kind of thing. Flowers arriving daily, a trip to Venice for our second date.’
Julie’s mouth is hanging open. ‘We don’t know the kind of thing at all, do we, Mabel?’
Patricia laughs, and I am surprised anew by her beauty. I also note that she didn’t answer the original question.
‘I’ve never been to Venice,’ I say.
‘Oh,’ Patricia says, ‘it’s beautiful. And if you’re there with someone you love, well, it’s pretty damn near perfect.’
‘So you did love him?’ Julie asks.
‘Oh yes, I loved him.’
Her eyes have changed, and I know she’s back there, reliving it. And then it’s like she snaps back into focus, and she’s with us again.
Julie makes a sudden movement, clutching Patty’s arm. ‘Was he a Beatle, Patty?’
She laughs. We all do. ‘No, Julie. I’m not quite that old.’
After a beat of silence, she speaks again. ‘When I found out I was pregnant, I was so happy. I thought it was just the start of things for him and me, that we’d be a family. I was so young and na?ve. It turned out he already had a family. A wife and two kids he’d never thought to mention.’
Julie shakes her head. I wonder whether she’s thinking about her own situation, casting Patricia in the role of Estelle. Seeing that it’s not always the other woman who’s the villain of the piece.
‘So you raised her alone?’ Julie asks.
‘I did.’
‘It’s no wonder you miss her so much,’ Julie says. ‘If it was just the two of you, for all those years.’
‘Yes, all her childhood it was just the two of us. She lived at home right up until she met Mark when she was in her late twenties. And then she came back, after she had the girls and Mark walked out on them. I wasn’t sure, at first, about having little ones around all the time again, but it was wonderful. They keep you young, children, don’t they?’
Julie and I must both look a little blank, because she laughs.
‘Of course, I forget sometimes that neither of you have had them. It’s such a huge disruption, having kids in the house, but it’s like nothing else. It’s all stories and dancing, painting and running about. Nothing’s out of bounds.’
For a minute or two, I try to picture it. The way it would have been for us, Arthur and me. He wouldn’t have had those affairs, I don’t think. Perhaps it would have made me a bit… what? Lighter? More playful? I see myself, young again, with a baby in my arms. The house in disarray, toys everywhere. Then a little older, with a little girl holding my hand at the side of the road. But it’s make-believe. It’s not something I ever had, or even wanted. Going over how it might have changed things is a pointless exercise.
‘How are they getting on?’ Julie asks. Her voice is steady but there’s a catch in it, and I wonder whether she’s been delving into her own memories, seeing how things might have been in different circumstances.