This is a novel about love and duty: about a woman's ambition to have a career and to excel in it, and how a woman is expected to put her husband first, especially when he becomes very ill and is dependent on her. This is what Anita has to deal with - and how she copes is the story that unfolds. Sufficient to say that coping is not easy and the demands of duty are very hard indeed.
He is giving in again. Slowly she puts on his shirt. 'We can out your trousers on when you've been to the toilet and we have washed you, shall we?' And he gets off the bed, lets her support him out of the room, past my hiding place, to the bathroom.
Patrick's muffled shout, 'No' carries across the landing.
When they return moments later he is fully undressed, obviously unwashed. She props him up in the bed and goes downstairs. A couple of minutes later she returns with a glass of water and a crustless sandwich. 'Here now.' He lifts his face and she sends the pills down his baggy white throat.
