Emily by Jilly Cooper

Author:Jilly Cooper
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, General, Modern fiction, Fiction, Love stories
ISBN: 9780552152495
Publisher: Corgi Books
Published: 2005-05-02T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

LOOKING back on a time of intense unhappiness, one fortunately remembers very little. Our marriage was into injury time. Somehow we got through Christmas and the next month; hardly speaking, licking our wounds, yet still putting up a front to the outside world. Over and over I made plans to leave, but could never quite bring myself to. In spite of everything I still loved Rory.

February brought snow, turning the island into a place of magic.

Coco’s ankle recovered and she decided to give a birthday party for Buster.

Rory went to Glasgow for the night to stock up with paint, but was due back at lunchtime on the day of the party.

I went to sleep and had the most terrible nightmare about Marina and Rory, lying tangled in each other’s arms, asleep on the floor. I woke up in floods of tears, with the moon in my eyes and the screaming horrors in my mind. I groped for Rory beside me, and then remembered he wasn’t there. I was too frightened to go back to sleep again. I got up and cleaned the house from top to toe (my charwoman had been off for several weeks with rheumatism), and spent hours cooking Rory a gorgeous lunch to welcome him home. Then I went out and bought two bottles of really good wine. From now on I decided I was going to make a last effort to save my marriage.

At twelve o’clock the telephone rang. It was Rory. He was still in Glasgow. He’d be back later, in time for Coco’s party.

‘Why bother to come back home at all?’ I said, and slammed down the telephone, all my good resolutions gone to pot. How the hell was I to fill in the time until he got back? I refused to cry. I decided to drive into Penlorren and buy Buster a present.

Two miles from home I suddenly realized I’d come out without my purse, and decided to turn round and get it. The road was icy and inches deep in snow. My U-turn was disastrously unsuccessful. The next thing, I was stuck across the road, the wheels whirring up snow every time I pressed the accelerator.

Suddenly, round the corner, a dark blue car came hurtling towards me at breakneck speed. It was upon me, it must crash into me. There was no stopping it.

It was all over in a flash. The dark blue car swung miraculously to the right, its mudguard only scraping the front of my car, and came to a halt in a little ditch just beyond.

Trust my luck. It was my old enemy Finn Maclean who got out of the car, all red hair and lowered black brows, jaw corners and narrow, infuriated eyes. ‘What the blazes do you think ’ he began, then he realized it was me, took a deep breath and said, ‘God, I might have known.’

He looked me over in a way that made me feel very small, and hot and uncomfortable.

‘I couldn’t help it,’ I blurted out, still shaking from shock.

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