‘The heart of the matter is your husband’s betrayal.’
Although Joely hadn’t expected that, it about summed it up.
‘Or is it the loss of your best friend that’s causing you the greater sadness?’
Joely thought of Martha, detested her and was about to speak when Freda said, ‘She’ll never be your best friend again so you might as well forget about her.’
Well, that was Martha dealt with, and fleetingly sorry that Andee wasn’t around to be amused by Freda’s directness, Joely said, ‘She’ll have to be in my life going forward because my daughter’s father is with her …’
Freda’s hand went up. ‘Let’s talk about him and you, not her. We need to sort out the betrayal, and being someone who has known it, suffered it, many times in her life, my first piece of advice to you is to stop jumping to conclusions you have no evidence for, especially if they cause you pain.’
Joely frowned. ‘It happened,’ she said. ‘I’m not imagining it.’
‘Has he mentioned divorce before?’
Realizing her mistake, Joely shook her head. ‘But it has to come up at some point.’
‘Why does it have to? And why put yourself through the torment of imagining it when there are other things that should concern you more, such as who else is suffering because of this betrayal?’
Not having expected that Joely sat quietly thinking of Holly and her mother. Jamie too, because they always worried about each other.
‘You believe that you and your husband are the main players in this – though you acknowledge that your daughter and ex-best friend are also involved – but in your mind it’s really about you and … What’s his name?’
‘Callum.’
‘Callum. Of course it is about you two, because if you can resolve your issues the hurt will go away for those around you – apart from the best friend, but I don’t think we’re very concerned about her. She’s no more than a moth.’
Joely blinked before remembering that this was a reference to Freda’s literary works. ‘When you write,’ she said, ‘you usually turn moths into the main players.’
‘But they’re still moths, and if you’re familiar with my books you’ll know that they’re drawn to the luminous aura of success, love, power – you and your husband would have represented at least two out of the three for your friend – but moths are always burned when they go too close to the source of their fascination. They don’t survive.’
Finding this thought quite pleasurable, if a little extreme, Joely said, ‘In this case the moth has put the light out and is creating a new light of her own, so maybe I’m now the moth.’
Clearly unimpressed by that, Freda said, ‘Only if you choose to be. The question is, do you want to resolve your issues with Callum?’
Liking that she might have the option, Joely said, ‘As far as I was concerned, we didn’t have any, but obviously he wouldn’t agree with that or he wouldn’t have gone.’ She didn’t have to go into the entire truth of it all and the part she’d played herself, this was deep enough.
Freda gave a small sigh and checking the time on her watch she got up to go and take the pudding from the oven. After placing it to cool, she returned to her chair, dropping another log onto the fire before sitting down. ‘My husband and I didn’t have any “issues” as you put it,’ she said, ‘our marriage was sound, our understanding of each other had few flaws – I say few because I never did understand why he was unfaithful to me. Do you understand why yours was unfaithful to you?’
Joely shifted uncomfortably, not willing to take any blame in spite of knowing she should.
As though reading her mind, Freda said, ‘I’m not going to tell you what to do, I’m going to tell you what I did with my husband and you must decide for yourself if it was the right thing.’
Still suspecting that Sir and Mr Donahoe were one and the same, meaning Freda was about to jump forward many years in the story, Joely was eager to listen.
‘I knew before we were married,’ Freda began, her eyes starting to lose focus as her lips trembled slightly and her fingers tightened their hold on each other, ‘that he had a roving eye. I don’t think he actually misbehaved during our courting years, at least not in the biblical sense, but he was always very comfortable in female company. He adored women, revered