like
that. I need regular reports on how that business of yours is going
anyway, just to make sure that you don’t make a complete mess of
it. But I’ve got a couple of conditions.”
“ Anything,” Rachel said
eagerly.
“ Firstly, I don’t want to hear
anything about Noah and Cassie,” she said with a catch in her
voice. “I don’t want to know when the baby’s born, what sex it is,
where they’re living. In fact I don’t even want to hear their names
mentioned ever again.”
“ Fair enough. And your second
condition?”
“ You have to promise me you won’t
tell anyone, especially Joey, that you are I are in contact. If you
want to make up for any perceived misunderstandings then you’ll
agree to that. Otherwise it’s no dice, I’m afraid.”
“ Of course. I understand how you
feel, Max, and I agree.”
Maxine held it together until she replaced the
receiver and then waited for a reaction to set in. She was alone in
the house, supervising the children. Nancy was asleep, and Peter
was drawing at the kitchen table, completely self-absorbed and
barely aware of her presence.
Satisfied that they didn’t need her, Maxine
decided that now was as good a time as any to examine Rachel’s
news. She’d been in Cambridge for over two weeks, and life had been
so hectic that she’d had little time to dwell upon her own
feelings. Or lack of them. She managed a brief smile when she
remembered that first, disastrous, bike ride. She’d barely been
able to walk for three days afterward, having become painfully
acquainted with muscles she hadn’t previously known she possessed,
but she was now becoming an old hand at this cycling business. The
three-mile ride into Cambridge, which had seemed more like three
hundred on that first day as she puffed and sweated, lagging well
behind the rest of them, could now be accomplished with comparative
ease.
Derek gave her a tour of Jesus College. She’d
seen it once before when she attended her interview but had been
too nervous to properly appreciate its splendor. This time she
enjoyed the beauty of the old buildings, all the more enticing
because the college had been founded on the site of a nunnery and
turned into a college after it gained a reputation for
licentiousness. Maxine supposed that must account for its
peacefulness. She felt its history keenly, especially now when the
place was devoid of noisy undergraduates, and she drank in the
atmosphere of calm academic excellence. Walking through the main
entrance via the walled passage, Maxine knew this was where she was
supposed to be. She admired the immaculate quadrangles and ancient
religious statues, proud that she’d been selected to be a part of
it all but suddenly terrified that she’d been admitted by mistake
and would be asked to leave.
The days had been full, passing quickly. It
was only at night that Maxine, lying in bed but too tired to sleep,
found her mind dwelling upon Noah’s betrayal. The clamp that had
suppressed her feelings had relaxed its hold sufficiently for her
to take pleasure in simple things. The children, Jesus College, the
increasingly long bike rides she took when exploring the
Cambridgeshire countryside, sometimes alone but often with the
children in tow. But whenever her mind drifted back to Noah, the
freeze returned.
It was over three weeks now since Cassie had
so casually dropped her devastating bombshell, and not one tear had
she shed during all that time. Sometimes that worried her. She knew
it wasn’t natural and retrieved his picture from beneath the pile
of books where she’d hidden it, propping it beside her bed so she
couldn’t avoid looking at it. But even that torture hadn’t produced
the reaction she’d been hoping for. She stared for hours at a time
at his image, hating him for what he’d done to her but unable to
stop loving him.
She felt better now that she knew the truth
about his relationship with Cassie, but still the tears wouldn’t
come. Maxine, who never
that. I need regular reports on how that business of yours is going
anyway, just to make sure that you don’t make a complete mess of
it. But I’ve got a couple of conditions.”
“ Anything,” Rachel said
eagerly.
“ Firstly, I don’t want to hear
anything about Noah and Cassie,” she said with a catch in her
voice. “I don’t want to know when the baby’s born, what sex it is,
where they’re living. In fact I don’t even want to hear their names
mentioned ever again.”
“ Fair enough. And your second
condition?”
“ You have to promise me you won’t
tell anyone, especially Joey, that you are I are in contact. If you
want to make up for any perceived misunderstandings then you’ll
agree to that. Otherwise it’s no dice, I’m afraid.”
“ Of course. I understand how you
feel, Max, and I agree.”
Maxine held it together until she replaced the
receiver and then waited for a reaction to set in. She was alone in
the house, supervising the children. Nancy was asleep, and Peter
was drawing at the kitchen table, completely self-absorbed and
barely aware of her presence.
Satisfied that they didn’t need her, Maxine
decided that now was as good a time as any to examine Rachel’s
news. She’d been in Cambridge for over two weeks, and life had been
so hectic that she’d had little time to dwell upon her own
feelings. Or lack of them. She managed a brief smile when she
remembered that first, disastrous, bike ride. She’d barely been
able to walk for three days afterward, having become painfully
acquainted with muscles she hadn’t previously known she possessed,
but she was now becoming an old hand at this cycling business. The
three-mile ride into Cambridge, which had seemed more like three
hundred on that first day as she puffed and sweated, lagging well
behind the rest of them, could now be accomplished with comparative
ease.
Derek gave her a tour of Jesus College. She’d
seen it once before when she attended her interview but had been
too nervous to properly appreciate its splendor. This time she
enjoyed the beauty of the old buildings, all the more enticing
because the college had been founded on the site of a nunnery and
turned into a college after it gained a reputation for
licentiousness. Maxine supposed that must account for its
peacefulness. She felt its history keenly, especially now when the
place was devoid of noisy undergraduates, and she drank in the
atmosphere of calm academic excellence. Walking through the main
entrance via the walled passage, Maxine knew this was where she was
supposed to be. She admired the immaculate quadrangles and ancient
religious statues, proud that she’d been selected to be a part of
it all but suddenly terrified that she’d been admitted by mistake
and would be asked to leave.
The days had been full, passing quickly. It
was only at night that Maxine, lying in bed but too tired to sleep,
found her mind dwelling upon Noah’s betrayal. The clamp that had
suppressed her feelings had relaxed its hold sufficiently for her
to take pleasure in simple things. The children, Jesus College, the
increasingly long bike rides she took when exploring the
Cambridgeshire countryside, sometimes alone but often with the
children in tow. But whenever her mind drifted back to Noah, the
freeze returned.
It was over three weeks now since Cassie had
so casually dropped her devastating bombshell, and not one tear had
she shed during all that time. Sometimes that worried her. She knew
it wasn’t natural and retrieved his picture from beneath the pile
of books where she’d hidden it, propping it beside her bed so she
couldn’t avoid looking at it. But even that torture hadn’t produced
the reaction she’d been hoping for. She stared for hours at a time
at his image, hating him for what he’d done to her but unable to
stop loving him.
She felt better now that she knew the truth
about his relationship with Cassie, but still the tears wouldn’t
come. Maxine, who never
Similar Books
