Promises of Love and Good Behaviour by Roderick Craig Low

Author:Roderick Craig Low
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: literary fiction, contemporary romance, contemporary fiction, love story, love triangle, love, relationships, inspirational, romance, suspense, mystery, romantic
ISBN: 9781782344131
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Three

‘It’s like a Victorian melodrama!’

His wife has to shout. Even the man seems far away to her left and the girl is little more than a study in perspective with the lines of the squares. She gives the chessboard scale, perhaps half-way to the vanishing point. The wind has dropped and the ground is clear of leaves, swept clean as if in preparation for a new start, while natural light illuminates the surface. Over in the far distance, the girl has stepped forwards into Rank 6 and then moves still nearer into Rank 5. Under normal circumstances this would be seen as an act of aggression - moving to the area of heaviest fighting. But she is on her own and her stance is not threatening. Indeed, on her own in the centre of the board in a centralised position where the possibilities are greatest, her whole demeanour is pacific. The purpose of her peregrination seems only to be able to hear what is going on and to make contribution if it is warranted.

‘Why didn’t you just get on with it? Mutual attraction I can understand - that was part of the agreement ...’

‘... What agreement?’

The man turns and is facing his wife from six or seven files away.

‘Our agreement.’

‘It wasn’t really an agreement.’

‘It was so. We had that discussion about an open marriage, about having the occasional fling, about respecting each other years before all this. You must remember?’

‘You told me what you wanted and I sort of went along.’

‘Easy to say that now!’

‘I was never very keen, you know that. Oh, I got a sort of vicarious thrill out of the idea of a modern, open marriage. I suppose I also liked the idea that, if the opportunity came along, I was free to take it. But I’d have been just as happy being monogamous. At least that’s how I felt at the outset.’

‘Are you suggesting that you and what’s-her-name wouldn’t have happened if we’d been old fashioned?’

The girl strains forward to hear his reply. This could be a major cross-roads, a turning point in the whole situation.

‘No.’

The girl relaxes and reduces the veiled threat she poses even further by moving down towards the side of the Rank. The man continues.

‘No, I’m glad we had our bumpy arrangement because I would have fallen in love with her anyway. It assuaged my guilt.’ He looks almost pleased with himself.

‘That’s where you went wrong, you see?’ His wife’s voice is more tender than the written words convey. ‘We made promises to each other and you broke them.’

‘Promises? That’s a strong way of putting it.’

‘We agreed that, whatever happened, our relationship was to remain rock-solid. We were at the centre of our world.’

‘Did we have that conversation?’

‘You know we did! It was in the same conversation. It was our contract. We were in bed one night. It was after we had been married for about three and a half years. You must remember.’

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