An Unsuitable Marriage by Colette Dartford

Author:Colette Dartford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Zaffre Publishing

Eleven

With the exception of Alice Rutherford, the girls were in high spirits on the minibus back from Millfield School. They sang pop songs, some with startlingly inappropriate lyrics. Olivia didn’t intervene, reasoning it was the catchy tunes that appealed and they wouldn’t know what a ménage a trois was anyway. Olivia certainly hadn’t at their age. At thirty-three, her understanding was still purely theoretical.

‘Who’s that song by?’

She threw the question open. No great surprise that Maisie Rutherford jumped in with the answer. ‘Katy Perry, miss.’

Ah yes, the girl who kissed a girl and liked it. Had Edward kissed a boy and liked it? Maybe he had punched the boy instead, or maybe Geoffrey had got himself all fired up over nothing.

Three days, two missed calls, no messages.

Olivia couldn’t believe he had blamed her for the other boys picking on Edward. Yes, she had gone over to his dorm to say goodnight, but just the once. OK, twice. It wasn’t as if she made a habit of it.

Geoffrey’s reaction to Freddie’s name-calling was completely over the top and it had clearly hit a nerve. If she didn’t know better she would think him homophobic, but he had always been so fond of her brother, Sam; made harmless jokes about his camp manner, the hours he spent on his appearance, the well-muscled boyfriends he mooned over. Edward reminded her a bit of Sam – the way they were both kind and sensitive. Olivia thought of Edward’s bedroom at Manor Farm, the walls bright with posters, games and gadgets everywhere, bunk beds for when he had sleepovers. Not once had he complained or said how much he missed it in case he made her and Geoffrey feel even worse than they already did.

Still, Olivia had taken Geoffrey’s advice – if it could be called advice when it was delivered as a bad-tempered tirade – and not said anything to Leo. She and Geoffrey may have different ideas as to what constitutes bullying, but perhaps he had been right and it was best to let Edward fight his own battles.

If she and Geoffrey had gone home together after they had argued, Olivia would have seen the regretful droop of his shoulders, heard his weary sighs, and known that he was sorry. Her doleful eyes, her hand brushing his, would have said that she was sorry too. A glass of wine, a kiss, an embrace – the wrong righted.

But they hadn’t gone home together – hadn’t even spoken – and the wrong most certainly had not been righted.

When Olivia accepted the job at St Bede’s, a determination to avoid living with Rowena had been her primary consideration. She hadn’t understood how detrimental it would be to live apart from Geoffrey; how it would tip and tilt their marriage – unbalance its natural equilibrium.

That was why she had asked Lorna to meet her at Millfield – so she could explain that living apart was an unnatural state for a married couple. If Lorna knew what to

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