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around, ‘But I see things are still the same with you and with Thane here,’ he said, as the deerhound settled happily by his feet once more, as if two years had not passed by and Jack was home again, settled in the most comfortable armchair, his long legs stretched out before the fire.
    I shuddered slightly as, patting Thane’s head, hemurmured, ‘At least
you
are still pleased to see me, old chap.’
    Thane wagged his tail and looked pleased in that almost human way as Jack glanced across at me. ‘I take it that you are still a grieving widow, that the missing husband has failed to return?’ he said mockingly.
    Although his belittling words made me angry, I told myself that he had every reason to feel bitter. Danny’s ghost had always been between us right from our first meeting, when I still believed Danny would return from Arizona and would walk in one day. To be honest, later, I learnt to accept with almost certainty that Danny was dead. It still remained the perfect excuse for not putting our relationship on a permanent basis, a refuge to evade marrying Jack.
    ‘And what about you? Did you marry the young lady you fancied so much, the one you left me for?’ I said as lightly as I could.
    ‘I did indeed.’
    ‘And so you are a happily married man at last.’
    He held up his hand as if not wishing to hear more. ‘I had no intention when I left you of marrying anyone: I was still in love with you. You surely never doubted that, Rose. It wasn’t my fault we ever parted. You drove me away.’
    He paused as if giving me the opportunity to deny it. When I said nothing he shrugged.
    ‘But circumstances overcame my plan that you would miss me. To cut a long story short, the young lady took pity on me, desolate as I was, and we formed a… er…relationship. Before I could recover my senses whichtold me this union was going to be a disaster, Meg announced that she was having my child.’ He sighed. ‘And so I did the honourable thing. We got married.’
    That was a relief, I thought. At least I was in no danger of an unrequited lover’s return.
    ‘And so you are living happily ever after. I am glad to hear it.’
    Jack shook his head solemnly.
    ‘Not quite, Rose, not quite. Meg died. Scarlet fever.’
    ‘And the child?’
    ‘She is being cared for by her grandmother.’ His face expressionless, he sounded troubled, resigned.
    ‘I’m sorry, Jack. Indeed I am.’
    He regarded me without speaking and, somewhat at a loss for words myself at these unexpected revelations, I said, ‘Such a tragic situation. Especially for the wee girl.’
    He nodded and said slowly, ‘Indeed it is. But it could have been worse. I knew from the beginning, even in those first months together, that I had made a mistake.’
    Shaking his head he regarded me solemnly. ‘I knew we would never be happy – the thought of long years ahead was intolerable; through no fault of her own, poor girl, she could never take your place. A sweet lass in many ways, but – oh, I don’t know, I suppose I was looking for another Rose McQuinn. A woman who stirred my senses, an impossibly strong-willed woman who drove me mad, but one who I never needed to explain everything to—’
    I held up my hand. ‘Stop – stop at that, Jack Macmerry. Not another word.’
    He jumped to his feet and seized my hands. ‘I will not – I cannot stop, Rose, I will always love you. The years we had together. You can’t change that. You loved another man, a dead man, more than me. Pitiful, wasn’t it, living with his ghostly presence?’
    I wrenched myself free. ‘Please, Jack, no more. Let’s have no more of this. You always knew the score. You wanted a sweet submissive wife and I wanted my career…’
    I watched his mouth curl as his lips echoed the words.
    ‘I never wanted, could never promise to be, that kind of a wife and you always knew that. You persisted in believing that you could change me.’
    He looked so hurt, I said, ‘Jack, I am sorry – sorry