What would Ursula think, Thom wondered bitterly, if she knew just how long he had been absent from Hannah's bedside? Of course that wasn't what she'd meant (or maybe it was; with Ursula it was sometimes impossible to say whether she was putting undercurrents and subtext into her speech or whether he was imagining them there), but it was the first place that Thom's mind leapt at the phrase.

"Thank you," he said, caught off guard a bit by what she'd said but trying not to show it. Was she trying to imply something? Surely not, after so long apart. Surely not, in this particular venue of all the possible ways she might have reached out to him if she intended to rekindle things. Surely not, after the note their affair had ended on. She'd made it quite clear that she had no further use for him; he was just one of a series of men she'd used to escape the tyranny of her husband's dismissal.

"I'll — do my best to enjoy myself," he said with some difficulty, quite glad to find that the conversation was ending.