The New Collected Short Stories Read online

  When Ruth had finished clearing away after dinner, she hurried up to the bedroom to find he was pretending to be fast asleep.

  Max spent most of Saturday at the golf club, and on Sunday he took the afternoon flight back to London. His last words before departing for the airport were that he couldn’t be sure when he would be returning.

  Second thoughts of divorce.

  As the weeks passed, with only the occasional phone call from London and the odd snatched weekend together, Ruth started seeing more and more of Gerald. Although he never attempted to do anything more than kiss her on the cheek at the beginning and end of their clandestine meetings, and certainly never placed a hand on her thigh, it was she who finally decided ‘the time had come’ to seduce him.

  ‘Will you marry me?’ she asked, as she watched him getting dressed at six the next morning.

  ‘But you’re already married,’ Gerald gently reminded her.

  ‘You know perfectly well that it’s a sham, and has been for months. I was swept off my feet by Max’s charm, and behaved like a schoolgirl. Heaven knows I’d read enough novels about marrying on the rebound.’

  ‘I’d marry you tomorrow, old girl, given half the chance,’ Gerald said, smiling. ‘You know I’ve adored you from the first day we met.’

  ‘Although you’re not down on one knee, Gerald, I shall consider that an acceptance,’ said Ruth, laughing. She paused and looked at her lover, standing in the half-light. ‘When I next see Max I’ll ask him for a divorce,’ she added quietly.

  Gerald took off his clothes and climbed back into bed.

  It was to be another month before Max returned to the island, and although he took the late flight, Ruth was waiting for him when he walked in the front door. When he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, she turned away.

  ‘I want a divorce,’ she said matter-of-factly.

  Max followed her into the drawing room without saying a word. He slumped down into a chair and remained silent for some time. Ruth sat patiently waiting for his response.

  ‘Is there another man?’ he eventually asked.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied.

  ‘Do I know him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Gerald?’ he asked, looking up at her.

  ‘Yes.’

  Once again Max fell into a morose silence.

  ‘I’ll be only too happy to make it easy for you,’ said Ruth. ‘You can sue me for divorce on the grounds of my adultery with Gerald, and I won’t put up a fight.’

  She was surprised by Max’s response. ‘I’d like a little time to think about it,’ he said. ‘Perhaps it would be sensible for us not to do anything until the boys come home at Christmas.’

  Ruth reluctantly agreed, but was puzzled, because she couldn’t remember when he had last mentioned the boys in her presence.

  Max spent the night in the spare room, and flew back to London the following morning, accompanied by two packed suitcases.

  He didn’t return to Jersey for several weeks, during which time Ruth and Gerald began to plan their future together.

  When the twins returned from university for the Christmas holidays, they sounded neither surprised nor disappointed that their mother would be getting a divorce.

  Max made no attempt to join the family for the festive season, but flew over to Jersey the day after the boys had returned to university. He took a taxi straight to the house, but stayed for only an hour.

  ‘I am willing to agree to a divorce,’ he told Ruth, ‘and I intend to start proceedings just as soon as I return to London.’

  Ruth simply nodded her agreement.

  ‘If you want things to go through quickly and smoothly, I suggest you appoint a London solicitor. That way I won’t have to keep flying back and forth to Jersey, which will only hold things up.’

  Ruth put up no objection to the idea, as she had reached the stage where she didn’t want to place any obstacles in Max’s way.

  A few days after Max had returned to the mainland, Ruth was served with divorce papers from a London law firm she had never heard of. She instructed Angus’s old solicitors in Chancery Lane to handle the proceedings, explaining over the phone to a junior partner that she wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible.

  ‘Are you hoping for a maintenance settlement of any kind?’ the solicitor asked.

  ‘No,’ said Ruth, trying not to laugh. ‘I don’t want anything other than for the whole matter to be settled quickly, on the grounds of my adultery.’

  ‘If those are your instructions, madam, I’ll draw up the necessary papers and have them ready for you to sign within the next few days.’

  When the decree nisi was served, Gerald suggested they celebrate by taking a holiday. Ruth agreed to the idea, just as long as they didn’t have to go anywhere near Italy.

  ‘Let’s sail around the Greek islands,’ said Gerald. ‘That way there will be less chance of bumping into any of my pupils, not to mention their parents.’ They flew to Athens the next day.

  When they sailed into the harbour at Skyros, Ruth said, ‘I’d never thought I would spend my third wedding anniversary with another man.’

  Gerald took her in his arms. ‘Try to forget Max,’ he said. ‘He’s history.’

  ‘Well, nearly,’ Ruth said. ‘I was rather hoping that the divorce would have been absolute before we left Jersey.’

  ‘Have you any idea what’s caused the hold-up?’ Gerald asked.

  ‘Heaven knows,’ Ruth replied, ‘but whatever it is, Max will have his reasons.’ She paused. ‘You know, I never did get to see his office in Mayfair, or meet any of his colleagues or friends. It’s almost as if it was all a figment of my imagination.’

  ‘Or his,’ said Gerald, putting an arm around her waist. ‘But don’t let’s waste any more time talking about Max. Let’s think about Greeks, and bacchanalian orgies.’

  ‘Is that what you teach those innocent little children in their formative years?’

  ‘No, it’s what they teach me,’ Gerald replied.

  For the next three weeks the two of them sailed around the Greek islands, eating too much moussaka, drinking too much wine, and hoping that too much sex would keep their weight down. By the end of their holiday Gerald was a little too red, and Ruth was dreading being reintroduced to her bathroom scales. The holiday could not have been more fun; not only because Gerald was such a good sailor, but because, as Ruth discovered, even during a storm he could make her laugh.

  Once they were back on Jersey, Gerald drove Ruth to the house. When she opened the front door she was greeted by a pile of letters. She sighed. They could all wait until tomorrow, she decided.

  Ruth spent a restless night tossing and turning. After snatching a few hours’ sleep, she decided that she might as well get up and make herself a cup of tea. She began to thumb through the post, only stopping when she came to a long buff envelope marked ‘Urgent’ and bearing a London postmark.

  She tore it open and extracted a document that brought a smile to her face: ‘A decree absolute has been granted between the aforesaid parties: Max Donald Bennett and Ruth Ethel Bennett.’

  ‘That settles that once and for all,’ she said out loud, and immediately phoned Gerald to tell him the good news.

  ‘Disappointing,’ he said.

  ‘Disappointing?’ she repeated.

  ‘Yes, my darling. You have no idea how much my street cred has risen since the boys at school discovered I’ve been on holiday with a married woman.’

  Ruth laughed. ‘Behave yourself, Gerald, and try to get used to the idea of being a respectable married man.’

  ‘Can’t wait,’ he said. ‘But must dash. It’s one thing to be living in sin; it’s quite another to be late for morning prayers.’

  Ruth went up to the bathroom and stood gingerly on the scales. She groaned when she saw where the little indicator finally stopped. She decided she would have to spend at least an hour in the gym that morning. The phone rang just as she was stepping into the bath