Chapter 5: Come Home?
Seduction
"Come on," Kim suggested. "Let's go for a walk and leave this mess behind us at least for the remainder of the day."
Kam nodded. Twinkle tied her straw bonnet under her chin before they were arm in arm venturing back through the house and toward the park.
"I still want to know what you'll do if your husband does come home?" Kam asked with a wistful sigh. Always the romantic.
"Do you really think he will?" Silly of her to ask, but the old hope of having him near , of having him to come to see her as he used to when they courted so long ago, was taking root in her heart. "He never wanted a wife."
How it pained her to know that of the truth. Given half a chance, she knew she could have been a good wife to him. It seemed to late for such youthful fantasies.
"When men grow older, and you know I speak from experience," Kam said, "They want to settle down into a quieter life with their wives at their side."
"I daresay." Twinkle put in. laughing, "Paul isn't so old as your husband was, Kam."
Kam and Kim both giggled with the assesment. Gerald turned thirty-one two months past. Kam's husband must have been in his sixth, almost seventh, decade when he'd passed away.
"True," Kam said. "But he probably wants children before he's too old. My husband already had children to take over his title and lands."
Did Kim want to be a mother? It seemed unlikely at this stage in her marriage. Especially after all the years she'd craved her husband's attention and received none. But the fact of the matter was, she was aging, and she wanted children very much. When she was growing up, she'd always thought she'd have her own brood by the ripe age of twenty-seven.
She'd waited on her husband too long, wasted too many years pining after something that wasn't meant to be. For the time being, she had her paintings to keep her time occupied. Not that she could share it with the world since they were mostly of an nature. But it was something to keep her mind engaged.
They walked down the winding path of the Serpentine and sat on a bench to watch the ducks swim by.
Finally. Kim said, "Children would be a welcome distraction, and wouldn't be able to leave me so readily as my husband did."
Twinkle gave her a pensive look, "You were both so young that it's not fair to fault either of you in a failed marriage. We are surrounded by failed marriages. Most of our acquaintances will never have the security of wedded bliss." She scrunched up her nose. "Paul should have known better than to keep running away from his life here. It's done either of you any good. A shame really. And you are a fine woman, Kim. Don't let that blackgurad husband of yours make you think otherwise."
"I don't think otherwise."
"I'm glad to hear that." Twinkle tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and let the sun warm her face.
"You know things could change for the better if he does come home," Kam interjected. "You got on well enough when you were younger. People change over time."
Never could a statement be truer. She had changed a great deal over the years, mostly in the last three years since Gerald's father had passed away. The man had been like a father to her. Her father-in-law had given her wings and set her free. He'd been a good man and was everything Gerald apparently was not.
"I never spent any time with Gerald outside the watchful eye of our chaperone. Someone was always five feet behind us making sure we acted appropiately. Most visits, we hardly had the oppotunity to talk."
"Yet in those allotted times, he was always pleasant with you." Kam pointed out.
"I wonder if it was an act. Something to keep his father happy. I can't blame him for leaving; he was a young man bent on adventure. I was still a child in his eyes."
From the moment he'd enter her bedchamber on their wedding night, she'd started to cry. And she'd continued to cry for the remainder of the evening. She'd ruined a perfectly good wedding day by turning into a sniveling, whining young woman. He'd done his duty, and of course she'd let him. Without so much as a goodbye, he had left her that very night.
She shivered despite the warm outside. She didn't like these memories resurfacing. It had taken her years to bury the happy and sad memories in the back of her mind. She wished she could banished Gerald completely from her thoughts, but doubted he'd ever completely dissapear from them.
Comments