raised an eyebrow at him. ‘Er . . . just remind me again, Harry. That money was intended for people in desperate need, wasn’t it?’
‘Yes, it was.’
‘Well, I was one of those people after you threw me out without anything more than the clothes on my back. So it went to a needy person, didn’t it?’
He looked stunned but found he couldn’t argue with that, so didn’t. ‘You took some of my clothes too.’
She gave a nonchalant shrug. ‘Because I knew someone else in dire need, and in the circumstances I didn’t think you’d mind.’ Over her shock now, Jan folded her arms, looked him square in the eyes and said, ‘So Mrs March is the name of your do-gooding friend, is it? Is that all she does for you, Harry, a few cleaning jobs around the house and cook you a meal?’
He shot her a disapproving look. ‘No need for that attitude, Janet. I won’t have you speak about Mrs March that way. I wouldn’t have managed to keep house without the help of the good ladies of the congregation.’
She responded sardonically, ‘No, you wouldn’t have time for housework, would you? Not with every minute taken up with helping the deserving.’
He ignored her jibe and said, ‘Mrs March also noticed a man coming in here with you that evening. She said that by the way you acted together, you obviously knew each other well.’
Jan scowled angrily at him. ‘Not in the way that you’re implying we don’t!’
‘So you deny you’re living together, even though there are signs of a man all over the place,’ he said, casting his eyes around, noting Glen’s slippers by a chair, the unread evening newspaper over the arm of it.
‘Actually we are living together but as friends, clubbing together to fund a place to live in because otherwise we couldn’t afford it. We sleep in separate bedrooms,’ Jan added defensively.
He cast his eyes around again before bringing them back to her. ‘How can you live in a place like this? It’s barely more than a hovel.’
‘Like this! Let me tell you, it might not be Buckingham Palace but it’s a far cry from living on the streets.’
‘I grant you that much. But it can’t be compared to the house you left.’
‘The house you threw me out of and told me never to darken the door of again, you mean?’
His face tight, Harry snapped, ‘I found you in bed with another man. What did you expect me to do . . . make you both a cup of tea?’
Jan shook her head sadly at him. ‘You still haven’t accepted any responsibility for driving me into another man’s arms, have you, Harry? I’m sure God is very grateful for your dedication in serving him and I hope, like you do, that his reward to you will be a place in heaven where you can make your apologies to Keith for allowing him out on the night that he died. But in the process you’ve turned your back on the people who loved you . . . on me . . . starved me of love and affection, giving it all instead to the people you were helping while I became nothing more than a housekeeper to you.’
‘I asked you to join me in becoming a servant of the Lord, Janet.’
She said in all sincerity, ‘Oh, I would have been quite happy to do some good turns for the needy now and again, but I wasn’t prepared to give up my life to it, like you were.’ She gave a deep sigh and looked at him tenderly. ‘We used to be so close, did everything together. You were constantly telling me how much you loved me and physically showing you did too, like I did then. Where did that Harry go?’
He looked her in her eyes and said flatly, ‘He died the night our son did, Janet.’
She heaved a deep sad sigh then asked, ‘Look, why are you here exactly?’
‘Well, you never came back to beg my forgiveness . . . but then I know you can be stubborn. So I’ve come to say I forgive you and tell you you can come home.’
‘Oh, I can, can I? You really think I’m going to come home just to be your housekeeper again?’
‘You’re my wife and a wife’s place is by her husband. You made vows before God to honour me until death parted us, remember that, Janet.’
‘It was a different man I made that promise to, Harry.