The 49th Day by Helen Noble

Author:Helen Noble [Noble, Helen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-78279-592-6
Publisher: John Hunt Publishing
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Unsettling

“That was exhausting,” said Henry, looking washed out. “Emotionally exhausting, I mean.”

“Yes, I can imagine,” Katherine said wryly. “Having your most private details dragged out in public is very uncomfortable.”

Oblivious to her inference, he continued with his diatribe. “She was there, of course, to gloat over my squirming; playing the innocent, the injured party. Perhaps I should have played the victim. I wonder what the outcome would have been if I suggested that she had seduced me? And all in the interests of getting a place on the Masters programme?”

“But you’re the authority figure in this particular scenario,” she reminded him.

“It’s not as if I ever promised her a place,” he continued. “Sex is sex and work is something else. Why mix it up?”

“Maybe our emotional experiences are an inextricable part of our lives? Perhaps we don’t all separate different aspects of our lives into convenient compartments?” Katherine suggested.

However, Henry was simply not listening. “The committee decided that there is no need to refer the complaint outside the university and the little bitch gets her bursary for a Medieval History Masters. So our paths shouldn’t cross again in the future. The warning will not have any real effect on my career, but it did give that dried-up old bag from Women’s Studies the pleasure of looking down her nose at me.”

Katherine was all too familiar with the rivalry between Henry and this particular colleague. Mary Brooke was a staunch feminist and she and Henry had clashed at many interdepartmental meetings. The truth was that they were both actually very much alike in temperament and ambition.

“So you’re in the clear?” she asked.

“Yes, things won’t be going any further,” he confirmed, with a sigh of relief.

“And the baby?” Katherine asked with caution.

‘Well, if she is pregnant, you couldn’t tell, “Henry replied dismissively. “I don’t think we’ll hear any more about that.” However, he was consumed with the indignity of his own situation. His reputation had been ridiculed and his ego had been trashed. The truth was that, for others, nothing had changed. They merely continued to think their private thoughts about Henry. The only difference was that now he had been called to account for his actions and he had been faced with the contempt of his counterparts. He had been forced to see himself through the eyes of his colleagues and was disquieted at the view. To her, he appeared withdrawn and became somewhat circular in his conversation. It seemed as if he was shutting himself off from the prying, judgemental eyes of the world.

Katherine once again found herself in a state of limbo, having to wait around to discover the consequences of the actions of the men in her life. She delved deeper into her own pregnancy, developing a particular interest in the biological details of the developing foetus. The minutes she spent pondering the changes in her body turned into hours of research and she became awash with awe at the exact timings and the tiny details of the process of conception and development.

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