Read Online Semi-Detached Marriage by Sally Wentworth - Free Book Online

convinced that you'd be bored here, aren't
you?'
    'Yes.' Cassie turned away and took a few
paces round the room, then turned to him, her hands opening to- wards him in a
pleading gesture as she tried to make him understand. 'Because what's offered
here is only entertainment, a means of passing the time. Oh, perhaps
pleasantly enough, if you really let yourself get involved. But that's all it
is. There's no creative stimulus, no challenge. Nothing to make you go to bed
feeling satisfied and fulfilled by the work you've done during the day. Nothing
to make you look forward to tomorrow. Even if I filled every minute of my days
here, I'd still only feel that I was marking time, just filling in the hours of
waiting until I could get back to London and start living again.'
    She came to an abrupt stop, her face flushed,
her green eyes gazing earnestly up into his. After a moment, she added, 'You do
understand, don't you?'
    Simon laughed mirthlessly. 'Oh, yes, I
understand all right. Though it's not easy for a man to accept that he takes
second place to his wife's work!'
    Cassie stared up at him in consternation.
'But that isn't what I meant at all. That doesn't come into it.'
          
    'Doesn't it? I seem to remember you saying,
before we were married, that you loved me so much that you'd follow me anywhere
I went. But it seems that that only applies so long as it's in the environs of
London,' he added with bitter irony.
    Green eyes flashing, Cassie said heatedly,
'Oh, for heaven's sake stop it! You're taking this personally, when there's
nothing personal about it. If you'd been offered a post in some other city
where I could have got a similar job I would have gone with you willingly. And
if you want to quote what we said in the past, wasn't it you who said that all
you wanted in the world was to make me happy? Well, I wouldn't be happy here.'
She shook her head helplessly. 'I've tried to explain to you how I feel. I'm
sorry if you don't like it, but that's the way it is.'
    She gazed at Simon, half unhappy, half
defiant, waiting for him to speak. For a long moment he stood, hands shoved in
his pockets, looking at her broodingly, then he sighed, came over to her and
pulled her to him, her head on his shoulder. Ruefully he said, 'You're right,
neither of us can help it. We're both products of our age. You fighting for
equality, and me agreeing in principle that you should have it, but the first
time our paths diverge expecting you to conform to the traditional feminine
image-and give up everything for me.' He gave a wry grin. 'Selfish, aren't we?”
   
    Cassie smiled back up at him, relief in her
face. 'A typical male chauvinist pig.'
    He laughed and kissed her nose. 'We'd better
unpack or we'll be late for lunch.'
    'Do you still want me to go on the tour this
afternoon?'
    'I think you owe that much to Mullaine's if
not to me.'
    Simon spoke lightly, but those last four
words made Cassie realise that no matter how much he pretended otherwise, he
still saw her defiance on a personal level, still brought the issue down to the
basis of she either loved him enough to give everything up for him or shedidn't. Really, to Simon, it was as simple as that.
        
    Opening the suitcase, Cassie took out her
make-up bag and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She turned
on the tap but didn't immediately begin to wash, just stood and stared at
herself in the mirror. Why did life have to be so complicated? You were going
along happily with everything fine and even getting better, and then,
suddenly-wham!-life hit you in the face and knocked you down again. And it was
all because of Simon's stubbornness. He must have known, even before he'd asked
her, that she would never consent. Slipping off her sweater, she began to wash
and then re-do her make-up, taking her time about it, for the first time since
she'd known him feeling so angry with her husband that she wished he'd just go
away and leave her