She poured her heart out to Pat.
"I understand you perfectly."
"Really?"
"Yes! Loving inevitably makes you dependent, and therefore at risk. Otherwise the relationship is purely superficial - safer, but, in return, never as fulfilling. So there's nothing you can really do about it. It's just the way life is. It's the way it was for me with my ex-husband. The way, I suppose, it was for you with David. And now we are both again exposed with Steve and Jesse. And the same with friends, relatives…"
Kathy nodded and rubbed her chin pensively.
"I sometimes wish I were a superficial, hypocritical person. Despite your very-much-to-the-point remark, I do think they are happier; or at least they seem to be."
"But I wouldn't confide in you if you were."
"Neither would I," admitted Kathy.
She looked around. The room that had once belonged to Mrs. Sloan was now joyfully sprinkled with little Stephanie's toys.
"Did Dr. Cameron finally get in touch with you?" Kathy found herself asking, not really knowing where this thought had come from. "Mrs. Horwood said he wanted to offer you his condolences. I was kind of surprised. I didn't know he was so close an acquaintance." This last sentence was especially hard for her to get through, since it was such bare-faced gossip. But of lately she was developing an uncomfortable urge to know as much as possible of everyone involved in this new and yet to be resolved chapter of her life.
"He isn't," answered Pat emphatically. "But the few days he holidayed here he made friends with every influential islander: the major, the priest, butcher Adam… Anyone of them must have told him about my aunt's passing."Kathy smiled, wondering what butcher Adam's influence specifically consisted on. "He's very thoughtful, Dr. Cameron."
The deliberate sarcastic tone did not go unnoticed, but Kathy didn't try to get any more information. She'd already ascertained the two things she wanted to know: Pat disliked the doctor as much as Mrs. Horwood - which she would probably have to give some thought to later - and Jesse didn't have a friendlier relationship with him - on her back - than he'd given her to understand.
"Do you think it is a mistake for me to start dating again?" Pat asked, with such an anxious face that Kathy was sure she would not dwell too much on her question about Dr. Cameron.
"Do you like him?"
"Yes, very much."