Sir Bernard and Grazia are settled comfortably in their chairs, while Dianne slips into the empty chair beside Grazia. Dianne wears a sort of half-smiling mask that’s polite and nothing more.
WhatisDianne’s secret?thinks Rose.
She’s bottling something up and Rose thinks that when Dianne finally gets to tell her story, it will rage out of her like a tornado.
‘I trust you all had a lovely lunch and a walk on the beach,’ she says to the group.
Everyone nods and Grazia surprises her by saying: ‘It is a pretty beach. We have travelled a lot but I have never been here before.’
Rose smiles. She loves people being relaxed enough to talk without being asked questions.
‘Corfu is very beautiful,’ she agrees, ‘and one of the marvellous things about having our sessions here is that being somewhere totally different allows us to escape our real lives. It’s a version of lying on the couch in traditionalanalytical therapy where you’re staring up at the ceiling with your therapist sitting out of sight. Being in a different location works in the same way. You’re here with your fellow …’
She pauses. What can she call them?
‘Seekers of Truth,’ suggests Keera suddenly and everyone laughs.
Rose beams at her.
‘Brilliant name,’ says Rose. ‘Now, before this session, I want us all to breathe deeply the way we did this morning. I want you to get in touch with your bodies, settle yourselves. Think about how you feel.’
A few eyes open widely.
Feeling?
‘Breathe in slowly. Become aware of how deeply you’re breathing: if your breath comes from your chest or your belly …’
Rose watches them all.
Dianne seems grimly determined not to feel anything.
India’s possibly afraid to close her eyes in case she nods off again.
Dan is doing his best. His chest is rising and falling with deep breathing.
Grazia’s trying it too but her husband has merely closed his eyes, his hands crossed on his stomach, and he looks as if he’s dozing off.
Keera’s glossy blonde head is bent as if she can’t hold the weight of her head up.
Nobody speaks. Rose doesn’t expect them to.
After ten minutes, she leads them back to open-eyed readiness.
‘This afternoon we’re going to move on.’
‘I hope you’re recovering from this morning, Dan?’
She looks at him questioningly and wonders if he isactually sitting less stiffly in his chair. As if some tiny weight has been lifted perhaps?
‘I’m …’ Dan flounders a bit. ‘I can’t find the words,’ he admits. ‘You’ve given me a lot to think about,’ he says.
He pauses as if he’s been planning what to say. ‘I want to clear up any confusion about myself and Julia. She’s a wonderful person, I want everyone to know that.’
He looks around at them all earnestly.
‘In case it sounds as if our relationship is over, the bottom line is that we love each other: we’ve been together for over twenty years. We’re just taking a break at the moment.’
Keera’s eyebrows lift.
