Bernard runs his life his way, and he expects Grazia to do all the emotional labour in their relationship. If his kids are rude to her, that’s none of his business.
Grazia brought her husband to Corfu because she thought she could tell him how she felt only in the presence of other people. And Rose Talisman.
Rose feels both the burden and the honour of being seen as the person who can fix this.
She will do her absolute best.
But it doesn’t look good.
Grazia’s prepared to spend a week in the sun ripping her inner life open in order to fix the chasms in their family unit.
But Rose can tell that Bernard simply doesn’t care what his wife says here – he isn’t interested in other people’s opinions.
Only one opinion matters: his own. He’s clearly convinced that Grazia will calm down eventually.
‘Bernard, what does it feel like to hear these things?’ Rose asks softly.
She sees the complete calm in his eyes.
‘It is airing dirty laundry in public. I didn’t want to come here,’ he adds unnecessarily. ‘People sometimes don’t get on. I don’t know what I can do to change that.’
Rose has really only one question she can ask at this point.
‘Are you really sure you don’t know what to do?’ she asks.
‘No, I have no idea how to fix this. It upsets me,’ he says, looking not in the least upset.
Rose decides that the cage-rattling has to start. She has to get a real response from Bernard.
‘Do you feel frightened that if you stand up for Grazia, you will lose your children?’ she asks.
Before Bernard has a chance to answer, she races on: ‘You still feel the guilt for their mother dying, even though you could not have prevented that. You still feel the guilt of not being there for them when they were younger because you were building your business. Possibly in their eyes, you chose work over them.
‘Now that you’re older and have a wife you love, you’re scared of losing them by admitting this, so it’s easier for you to let this current state of affairs continue.’
Grazia looks as if she’s only just holding back tears and for the first time, Bernard shows some reaction to Rose’s comments. His fingers are tapping a rapid tattoo on the olive-wood table but he says nothing.
Rose continues.
‘You enable Stephen and Viola to treat Grazia badly. If you never stand up for her in their presence, it’s tacit approval for them to treat Grazia as if she is an employee, there only to sleep beside you.’
Rose pauses to see if this has any effect.
Bernard’s plaster façade is beginning to crack: a muscle in his jaw is vibrating with tension and for the first time, Rose thinks she’s seeing the real Bernard.
‘I love Grazia,’ he says hoarsely. ‘She is good to me. I am so happy with her but this is tearing us apart,’ and he stops talking.
Grazia, who is normally so demonstrative with her husband, does not touch him now.
She’s holding her little gold cigarette lighter, constantly clicking it, waiting for the next moment when she can smoke one of her beloved cigarettes.
‘I know they have stress-relieving properties but they also cause cancer,’ says Rose, looking at the cigarette lighter.
Grazia shrugs: ‘My only sin,’ she says. ‘But Bernard’s children would be delighted if I were dead.’
India winces at this.
‘But if you were dead, Bernard would have nobody,’ India interrupts, unable to keep quiet any longer. ‘Your kids, Bernard, who are obviously older than me, would havetheirlives but you’d be lonely as hell. Single dinnersat home. Nobody to watch Netflix with. Is that what they want?’ India demands. ‘I’m sorry but your children sound like horrible people, Bernard. It’s your happiness, Bernard and Grazia, versus the adult children waiting for you to drop dead before they get their hands on the serious money. They should be ashamed of themselves.’
