"M'lady. Er...excuse me. Might I'ave a word?"She looked up at him, startled, seeing him for the first time."I was wonderin..." Burt swallowed. "I was ...onderin if you knew when herladyship, er Lady Ann - when Lady Ann is comin back from er holidee."His mother stared at him silently for several moments, then her facecooled into a mask of silent fury. "Are you addressing me, man?" Er... Er, yes m'lady." Are you talking to me?" Er yes madam."Her eyes were like ice, her cheeks hard and drawn. "How. ”Tretyakov paused in ponderous silence once again, before speaking. “And I say again, you are only telling me this now?”“I only knew for sure two days ago, Comrade Colonel. And as, by then, as I have said already, I knew I was meeting you in any event, and so I thought it best to bring the news myself, with everything else I had for you.”“You thought it best!” Tretyakov scoffed. “When I wish you to think about ‘what is best’ Novikova, I will inform you. I think being given so much. We moved into the bedroom and Mom sat on the side of the bed facing the window. Retrieving the cream from the med kit that was spread across my desk I turned back to the bed and stood in mesmerised silence as I stared at Mom’s naked back. When my back was turned she had unfastened the belt from around her waist and slipped her arms from the sleeves to reveal her naked shoulders and back to me. ‘This will be cold.’ Mom jumped when I gently touched her shoulder. The cream would ease the ache but. Why couldn’t Maggie do new things with me, so that we could explore them together? At other times, I was excited thinking of what my sweet lovely wife might do with other men. I worried for our relationship, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about Maggie being intimate with other men, occasionally even with lots of men!As ever, the working week took over, and Maggie became consumed with lesson preparation and marking when she wasn’t working late at school. I wasn’t travelling much so I took over.