Looking for Evelyn by Maggie Ritchie

Author:Maggie Ritchie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saraband
Published: 2017-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

When her husband came home that night, Evelyn told him about her plans to help Joseph Makelele. Robert was sitting on the bed and she couldn’t make out his expression from behind the mosquito net.

‘Why would you do that?’ he said after a while. ‘Presumably he’s here to be trained as a teacher.’

‘Yes, but he has this wonderful talent, and besides, I want to do it.’ She pulled aside the netting and sat down next to him, her hand seeking his.

‘First the clinic, now this – are you bored?’

‘I am, I’m afraid, but only when you go away. I’m not bored of us.’

He was silent for a while. They had grown used to silences in their marriage but Evelyn desperately wanted to do this; it seemed like her last chance to salvage her dreams of a new life in Africa. She squeezed Robert’s hand. ‘Please, darling. I need this.’

He turned to speak to her, his face in shadow. ‘I know we haven’t been . . . close over the last few weeks, but I want this marriage to work. I don’t want you to be unhappy. I know you’re lonely, that you haven’t adjusted to Africa yet, all that takes time. But I’m not sure this project is the answer. Wouldn’t it be better if we tried for a family?’ He kissed her hand. ‘I’ve always wanted children. If you had a baby, perhaps you’d feel different, settle more into life here.’

Evelyn thought of her mother, sitting in the big empty house in Farnham surrounded by photographs of her and her brothers, long gone to jobs and their own wives. Being a mother had kept her busy, but in the long run it hadn’t made her happy. Now that her mother was alone in the house, she filled her days polishing surfaces already gleaming and plumping cushions, waiting for her husband to come home.

‘I want more than that, Robert. I want to do something with my life.’

‘What could be more important than bringing up a child?’ He withdrew his hand. ‘Does Jim Docherty know about this plan? I’m not sure he’d appreciate you and Gerry Mann distracting one of his students with something as impractical as art classes.’

‘No, he doesn’t. And I’m not going to tell him either. I get the impression he doesn’t approve of me. He’ll put a stop to it, say it’s not relevant to Joseph’s studies, that I’m not qualified to teach.’

‘And he would be right on both counts.’

Evelyn felt the blood rise in her face. ‘Thank you.’

‘Docherty is no fool, you know. He’ll soon find out what you’re up to when he sees you at the college.’

Evelyn looked down at their hands, now nearly as brown as Robert’s. She spoke casually. ‘I could teach him here.’

Robert stood up. ‘That’s out of the question, I forbid it.’

Evelyn stood up and faced him, outraged. ‘What do you mean, you forbid it?’ They glared at each other for moment before she laughed lightly and put her hand on his chest.

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