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seemed to make him happy, and in six months I’ll register it back to him—he’ll have got over it by then.’
    ‘And you?’
    ‘I think so.’
    ‘You’re a wonderful person, Serenity.’
    ‘I am not,’ Serenity replied smartly. ‘I have been functioning by remote control most of this week. I hated going back on the wards with everyone knowing that I’d been flunked in my wedding finals. It was like being publicly flogged. I’m still a bit numb, but I have been doing a bit of research, and I’m not a nice person at all. My pride has taken a beating, not my heart, and that’s shocking. I can wear John’s ring because my love was not very deep, it was more a friendship thing. He is badly hurt because he really loved me.’
    ‘He deserves to be hurt,’ Barbie returned savagely.
    ‘No, he does not. I remember when I decided to accept him: he had asked me many times but I didn’t feel right about it, then one night I heard Mrs Bellamy on the phone, discussing me with one of her buddies, and she knew I could hear her. She described me as a nice enough girl, a bit nondescript, with no background, no breeding, no money, and mentioned that my mother was only the Doctor’s hired help.’
    ‘Oh no!’
    ‘Oh, yes, and what does that make me? I did it to spite her. I knew my mother was worth ten of her, and I thought it would do her the world of good to have to accept me as Mrs Bellamy junior!’
    ‘It would have done John the world of good, too. It might have made a man of him.’
    ‘Not the way you think,’ Serenity said. ‘I did love him, but I was sorry for him. Sorry for the way she dominated him, and bullied him. He could never call his soul his own. She made his dentist appointments, told him when to shave, chose his clothes; she never let him grow up, and he really was a darling. I would never have pushed him round. I would have helped him to develop his self-confidence and let him be his own person. We could have been happy, but I have to admit that it would have been most satisfying to see him grow strong enough to tell her where to get off. But she won and I lost.’
    ‘No,’ Barbie said as they walked to the lift. ‘John missed his only chance. I might forgive him, I might even be kind to him when he gets back—he’ll need friends— because nobody wilt admire him for what he did to you that night. What a coward!’
    They walked out in the sunshine to the car park. ‘Throw that wretched dress in the back seat,’ Serenity grimaced. ‘I don’t know what I’ll do with it. And I’d be really grateful if you would be kind to John. He can’t help himself, because his mother has so smothered him. Poor John.’
    ‘Poor John,’ Barbie echoed. ‘He could have had you. But even though you’re hurting now, I'm glad you didn’t marry him. Robbie and I always knew he wasn’t right for you; he was charming, but so weak. You need a strong man to love you, Serenity. You shouldn’t agree to marry anyone because you feel sorry for them. That could have been what happened to your mother—you’re very like her—then when she met someone she could love deeply, she blew the whole bit. At least you’ve been saved from that.’
    Serenity opened the car door. ‘You could be right about Mother, but 1 doubt it. She was always on about the sanctity of marriage and that loyalty was the greatest thing you could offer your husband. She had very old-fashioned ideas about marriage, she held to the old values, that’s why I can’t accept that she betrayed her husband. I know that if I had married John, I'd have been faithful to him for my whole life, and as you say, I'm very like her. Something very weird happened but as I’m never likely to find out, then the wise thing to do is not dwell on it. Right, I’m off. And thanks for your support, and your love.’
    Barbie grabbed her and hugged her, tears streaming down her face. ‘Oh, Serenity, I hate letting you go. You will write? You will be my