Becoming George Sand by Rosalind Brackenbury

Author:Rosalind Brackenbury
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

“Edward,” she says to him on the phone. She has his mobile number, and hears him answer, but she can’t know where he is, what he is doing; she has given up that right.

“Oh, it’s you.”

“Yes. D’you have to sound so icy?”

“I can’t help how I sound. I’m busy, Maria. What is it?”

“I told the children. I didn’t mean to, without you there, but I did.”

“Oh. How did they take it?”

“Well, how d’you think? They’re upset. And angry. You have to come and talk to them too.”

She hears his silence, as he takes this in, as she makes it real to him: he has left, is leaving, not just her, but his children. She wonders what masochism in him has allowed him to do this, and if it can last. Edward loves his children, she knows it, and nothing can change that, surely.

“Lots of kids have to deal with it these days, separation, divorce. They’ll get used to it. At least we’re both in the same town.” His voice grates with misery; but he won’t let her in, if he can help it. She hears him clear his throat, then silence.

When, she wonders, did he turn into this hostile stranger? He can’t even bear to talk to her. It’s only weeks since they came back from their trip to Majorca, and it’s as if he has cut her surgically from him. A nerve throbs in her head, and her hand is shaking as it holds the phone. She doesn’t want to plead with him, but for them, she must.

“Could you come round and talk to them today? It would be only fair. Edward—” She has been going to say, do we have to do this, can’t we go back, isn’t there another way? But his voice has placed her out of reach; she can’t say it. Replay, she thinks, rewind, oh, if only we could go back to that place, where was it, on the mountain, where we came down past the little fires, and people called out to us, and there were cooking smells, and start again—but she can’t say this to him, not into the silence he has imposed on her, so she doesn’t even try.

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