‘And John,’ Amy continued.
‘John. Who was John?’
‘Her cat. A beautiful cat.’
A cat. Called John? ‘And where is he now, this – er – John?’
Amy shrugged. ‘Someone must have taken him away, I suppose. The RSPCA. A friend. I have no idea. I was hoping he’d gone to you. Gone to Devon.’
Ana shook her head. ‘No. He’s not in Devon.’
It fell silent for a while as Ana and Amy sipped champagne and stared at the carpet. ‘Did Bee have any special friends, any boyfriends, or anything that you knew about?’
Amy screwed up her face and then nodded. ‘She had a couple of friends who used to visit occasionally. I haven’t seen them in a while, though. In fact, I’d say she had no visitors at all in the last couple of months.’
What did they look like?’
‘A black girl – very pretty. And a large man. A handsome man.’
‘Bee’s boyfriend?’
‘No. More’s the pity. No, he was just a friend, that’s what Bee told me. A very old friend. And she never mentioned any other men. I often wondered if she was perhaps a lesbian.’
Ana choked as her champagne went down the wrong pipe. ‘I beg your pardon?’ she spluttered.
‘Your sister. I often wondered if she was gay. She had that Radclyffe Hall look about her, like one of those old-fashioned lesbians. Very glamorous but with quite a masculine edge, if you see what I mean.’
‘And did you – did you think she was?’
She shrugged. ‘Never saw men coming up here, never saw women either. Maybe she was asexual. Anyway – what other people get up to is their business. I try not to pay too much attention. What about you?’
Ana started, thinking surely she couldn’t be asking her if she was a lesbian.
‘Do you have a boyfriend?’
Ana thought of Hugh – was a boyfriend still a boyfriend when you hadn’t seen him for six months? – and shook her head.
‘And you’re back to Devon tomorrow, are you?’
She nodded.
‘Well – you should get yourself out tonight, see what you can find. There are some very beautiful young men in this city, you know.’
‘Really?’
‘Oh yes. I see them all the time. Every day. Everywhere I look. Beautiful young men and so well-dressed these days. Men seem to be paying much more attention to their grooming and their appearance, more like they used to in my day. Still – I must stop talking like this. I’ll get myself all excited, and there’s nothing much an old woman like me can do about it when they get themselves into that state.’ She winked at Ana and Ana nearly fainted.
‘Anyway,’ Amy said, picking up her snoring dog and rearranging her fluffy gown, ‘it’s been very nice to meet you, Ana, but it’s way past my bedtime, and if I don’t get going now I shall fall asleep here on the sofa and you’ll be stuck with me! But thank you so much for inviting me in. People don’t tend to do that in London these days, you know. They don’t invite you in. I think they’re all too scared you’ll never leave.’ She laughed, sadly. ‘And I’m sorry we had to meet under such dreadful circumstances. Your sister was a true original, Ana. A one-off. I miss her very much.’
Ana led Amy towards the front door, wishing that she wouldn’t leave, but knowing that she had to. ‘Can I ask you one more question?’ she began with one hand on the door, ‘about Bee?’
‘Certainly.’
‘You know – you know on the Tuesday? You know when you had to go to the hospital and – you know – identify her. Well, what, er … what did she look like? I mean – did she look peaceful, or …?’
Amy put a hand on Ana’s arm and smiled at her. ‘Ana,’ she said, her blue eyes twinkling, ‘she was smiling. I swearon Freddie’s life. Bee was smiling. She looked tired, but she looked beautiful and she was smiling. She didn’t look like a woman ravaged by life and disappointment, a woman so unimpressed by all the world had to offer that she decided to take her own life. She looked like a small girl who’d just been told a wondrous bedtime story and drifted into a sweet, untainted slumber.’
‘Thank you –’ Ana smiled with a strange sense of relief – ‘thank you very much.’