The Husband's Secret

ife sure can surprise you,’ her grandmother used to say, mostly about quite unsurprising developments such as a bad cold, the price of bananas and so on.

nothing truly hurts until it happens to you.

Plenty of fish in the sea!

I know as good feminists we’re not meant to like it, being objectified, but when you’ve never experienced it, it’s like, I don’t know, cocaine. I loved it. I felt so powerful. It was like in those movies when the superhero first discovers his powers. And then I thought, I wonder if I could get Will to notice me now, like those men notice me—and then, well, then . .

besotted with that child.”

Her goodness had limits.

I fit the pattern, don’t I?” said Tess suddenly. “You keep choosing the wrong women. I’m another wrong woman. I’m terrible for you.”

muffled, pain-free little life.

She’d always done the right thing. Why? For what? Who cared?

Their first overseas holiday. Tess’s husband.