The Failed Marriage (Presents Plus)

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Here’s the next chapter for you to be working on.’ She handed several typewritten sheets of paper to Dan when he arrived, pulling on her coat and hat, wrapping a scarf about her neck to keep out the cold February morning.

  Dan frowned as he watched her. ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Out,’ she smiled at him.

  ‘Very clever,’ he derided. ‘But I thought we were working this morning?’

  ‘You are.’ She picked up her bag, eyeing him mockingly as he gave an involuntary yawn. ‘I’ll lend you a couple of matchsticks too if you like.’

  ‘Funny too,’ he muttered. ‘I’ll be fine once I’ve had a couple of cups of your coffee. I trust you left some made in the kitchen?’

  ‘Joshua did,’ she nodded. ‘And he makes it even stronger than I do.’

  ‘Great,’ he said with real enthusiasm. ‘Jo, about last night—’

  ‘It’s private, Dan,’ she told him lightly.

  ‘Like that, hmm?’ he accepted without rancour.

  ‘Yes,’ she said heavily. ‘I wish it wasn’t, I wish I could tell you that we’ve sorted out our differences and that we’re back together. But we haven’t and we aren’t.’

  ‘You still haven’t told me where you’re going this morning?’ he frowned.

  ‘Shopping.’

  ‘Shopping? But James is waiting for this book—’

  ‘I know,’ she mocked. ‘And I haven’t forgotten the deadline, but you’re a couple of chapters behind me anyway.’

  ‘And I would get on a damn sight quicker if you stayed here and advised me,’ he groaned.

  ‘I’m not going on some frivolous spending spree, Dan,’ she said impatiently. ‘I’m going out to buy some food.’

  ‘But you’ve already shopped for food this week—’

  ‘Dan,’ she interrupted softly, ‘if I didn’t know better I’d say you were acting like a complaining husband—’

  ‘And as Joanna still has a husband that could be a little difficult,’ Joshua drawled as he walked in, Joanna having left the door open as she intended leaving immediately. He looked at their stricken faces in silent query. ‘I forgot something from my suitcase,’ he explained slowly as they both seemed to be struck dumb. ‘I’ll just get the papers and be on my way.’ He turned towards the bedroom, his thigh-length sheepskin coat emphasising his height and breadth.

  ‘No!’ Joanna was galvanised into speech, a rose-tinted blush colouring her cheeks as Joshua turned back to her with raised brows. ‘I—The two of you haven’t been introduced properly.’

  Mockery gleamed in the stormy grey eyes, Joshua looking very dark and attractive. ‘I don’t think that’s necessary, Joanna, we each know who the other is.’

  ‘Yes.’ She chewed on her bottom lip. ‘Er—Dan just came over to do some work.’

  ‘Yes,’ Joshua replied uninterestedly.

  She gave a light, forced laugh. ‘I’m afraid I had to drag him away from his girl-friend to get him here.’

  A probing glance was turned on Dan, the grey eyes narrowing as Dan grinned at him goodnaturedly. ‘I see,’ he nodded. ‘I won’t keep you, then.’ This time he went into the bedroom and closed the door.

  Joanna swallowed hard, her breath leaving her in a sigh. ‘Do you think he believed me?’ she asked Dan anxiously.

  He shrugged. ‘You sounded a bit defensive to me, love—’

  ‘Thanks!’ she muttered badtemperedly. ‘You realise he thinks you’re my lover?’

  ‘Mm, I’m flattered.’

  ‘Dan—’

  ‘Stop making such a fuss, Jo. He’s been away with his girl-friend for the last year, remember,’ he said pointedly.

  All her anger left her. She had forgotten Angela Hailey for a few minutes. Joshua was probably spending the day with her.

  ‘Hey, I’m sorry, sweet!’ Dan exclaimed at her stricken look. ‘But if you want him back, really want him back, you’re going to have to fight for him in every feminine way possible. You know what I mean?’ He spoke into her hair, so he couldn’t see the bright colour in her cheeks.

  ‘I know,’ she mumbled.

  ‘Don’t tell me you don’t want to, Jo.’ He stroked her hair soothingly. ‘I know physical desire when I see it.’

  ‘Excuse me,’ rasped the familiar voice of her husband. ‘I didn’t mean to interrupt your conversation, but—Maybe I’d better give dinner a miss tonight, Joanna?’ He looked at her with icy grey eyes.

  She moved out of Dan’s arms, her heart contracting painfully. ‘You have another—appointment?’ she asked huskily.

  ‘No,’ his gaze moved slowly to Dan, ‘but I thought perhaps you had.’

  She knew her laugh sounded hollow and false, but she couldn’t find any genuine humour in the situation. ‘Dan lives on baked beans and yoghurt. Decent food might throw his whole digestive system into a frenzy!’

  Joshua’s mouth twisted. ‘So you won’t be joining us, Mr Cameron?’ he drawled.

  ‘No,’ Dan answered lightly. ‘Will you be bringing Miss Hailey with you?’

  Grey eyes turned metallic and then froze like silver ice. ‘No,’ Joshua bit out. ‘Unless she was included in the invitation?’ His gaze probed Joanna’s pale face.

  How could Dan do this to her, how could he mention Angela! ‘No,’ she said curtly, ‘she wasn’t.’

  He nodded dismissively. ‘I’ll see you this evening, then. Cameron,’ he added curtly to Dan before leaving.

  ‘You big oaf!’ Joanna turned on her red-haired tormentor as soon as they were alone. ‘You idiot!’ she hissed, punching him on the arm in her fury.

  ‘Ouch!’ He looked as if she had mortally wounded him. ‘I was only trying to be helpful. How would you have felt if he’d turned up tonight at your cosy little dinner for two with his girl-friend in tow?’

  She paled at the thought. ‘Joshua may be hard, even a little cruel at times, but I can’t believe he would ever do that to me.’

  ‘He went off with her for a year, didn’t he?’

  She swallowed hard. ‘That wasn’t all his fault. I—He’s a man—’

  ‘I can see that!’ he derided.

  ‘And I wouldn’t let him near me after Lindy died! Surely you must realise how difficult that must have been for him.’

  Dan’s eyes widened. ‘You’re actually excusing what he did?’ he said disbelievingly.

  ‘I’m explaining it,’ she corrected impatiently. ‘We’d been married for three years before Lindy died, and our relationship was—well, it was—’

  ‘Hot in bed,’ he put in.

  ‘Yes!’ she glared at him. ‘It was “hot in bed"! A man can’t just switch off after three years like that.’

  ‘Neither can a woman, not indefinitely.’

  ‘I did.’

  Dan shook his head. ‘For that first year, maybe, but not after that. It wasn’t lack of sexual interest that stopped you seeing other men this last year, it was lack of the right man.’

  She blushed at his perception, at the lesson she had learnt on that last night with Joshua. If only he hadn’t gone the next morning when she woke up, if only they could have talked—

  ‘Live in the present, Jo,’ Dan correctly read her soul-searching. ‘Accept Joshua’s affair for what it was, and then get your warpaint on.’

  She smiled. ‘I intend doing just that. You’ll find the makings of a sandwich in the fridge if I’m not back by then—if you know how to make a sandwich, that is,’ she derided.

  ‘No baked beans?’ he asked hopefully.

  ‘I was only joking about that, Dan,’ she laughed.

  ‘I’m not,’ he said dryly. ‘A sandwich takes too much time to make and eat. Besides, I’m invited out to dinner tonight myself.’

  ‘Carmella can cook too?’ she teased.

  He laughed his enjoyment. ‘So she says. I’ll let you know tomorrow. Or would you rather I gave tomorrow a miss?’

  Joanna blushed at the devilment in his eyes. ‘Call first, hmm?’ She evaded his glance.
<
br />   ‘I’ll do that,’ he said dryly. ‘Now go and buy this gastronomic delight.’

  ‘Roast chicken,’ she corrected. ‘It’s Joshua’s favourite.’

  ‘Mine too,’ he grinned.

  ‘Tell that to Carmella!’

  ‘Oh, I will,’ he said with a wicked glint in his eye.

  Joanna called in to see her parents at lunchtime after doing her shopping, and found both her mother and father in the lounge, but she refused their invitation to lunch.

  ‘Is Joshua still at your flat?’ her mother probed. ‘Or have you both gone back to the house? We had so little opportunity to see him last night,’ she added when Joanna confirmed that he was still at her fiat.

  ‘He was tired, Mother.’

  ‘But you—spoke, later?’

  ‘We talked this morning,’ she said stiffly. ‘Although not about anything important.’

  ‘He looks well, anyway,’ her father put in jovially.

  ‘Well, of course he does, Gerald,’ her mother snapped. ‘He’s just spent a year in the American sunshine. It’s our little girl who has suffered this last year.’

  Joanna grimaced at the sugary insincerity of her mother’s words. Somewhere during the last year her mother had come round to the idea that Joanna was a deserted wife, that Joshua had no right leaving her the way he had. As with anything else her mother said nowadays, Joanna ignored it.

  ‘Why don’t the two of you come over to dinner?’ her mother invited now. ‘Then we can all have a talk together.’

  ‘Cora—’

  ‘We had intended to dine alone tonight,’ Joanna frowned. ‘I’ve just been out for the food.’

  ‘Then I’m sure you bought enough for four. Your father and I will come over to you for dinner this evening.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘Cora, they want to be alone,’ Joanna’s father pointed out exasperatedly.

  ‘Don’t be silly, Gerald. You heard Joanna, they’re still estranged.’

  ‘Well, our presence isn’t going to help matters,’ he sighed.

  ‘Joshua is our son-in-law,’ her mother claimed in a hurt voice.

  ‘And Joanna’s husband,’ her father defended. ‘They need to be alone, to talk. We would only be in the way.’

  ‘Well, really!’ Her mother somehow managed to infuse hurt into her indignant exclamation, blinking back imaginary tears at the same time.

  The selfish desire to be alone with Joshua warred with the possibility of alienating her mother for a few days or weeks. There was no doubt which one won. ‘I really am sorry, Mother,’ she stood up to leave, ‘but I do want to be alone with Joshua tonight. Perhaps later in the week?’ She caught her father’s eye as he winked at her, seeing admiration for her in his expression.

  ‘Perhaps,’ her mother agreed haughtily. ‘Well, we mustn’t keep you, must we? I’m sure you want to get home.’

  She held back her smile as her father winked at her once again. ‘Yes, I do, actually,’ she added fuel to the flame. ‘I want to prepare the chicken.’

  ‘Then don’t let us keep you!’

  Her father was the one to walk out to the car with her, laughing softly as he did so. ‘I love your mother, Joanna,’ he chuckled, ‘but sometimes she can be very insensitive. Have a nice dinner, darling,’ he kissed her warmly on the cheek. ‘And for goodness’ sake don’t forget to invite us to dinner when you and Joshua are feeling sociable again,’ he warned.

  ‘I won’t,’ she promised.

  Her mother wasn’t just insensitive, she was totally thoughtless. She was so curious to question Joshua herself that she cared nothing for the fact that Joanna and Joshua had been separated for a year, that they would have private things of their own to discuss.

  She had never shared a moment of fun like that with her father before; it had given her a warm feeling to know that for once he understood her feelings and not her mother’s.

  She staggered into her flat with her bags of shopping to find Dan still at work on her long dining-room table, sketches scattered both there and on the floor.

  He hadn’t looked up when she came back from the kitchen after unpacking her shopping, bent over his latest sketch, a neat pile of them at his side ready to submit with her book for approval before he began work on the illustrations proper.

  ‘If you’re going to make a mess I wish you’d do it in your own flat.’ She began to pick up the paper from the floor. She collected the mugs up from the table once she had disposed of the paper. ‘Couldn’t you at least have used the same one?’ she groaned as she cleared away half a dozen dirty mugs.

  ‘They aren’t all mine,’ he mumbled uninterestedly, concentrating on his latest sketch.

  ‘They aren’t?’ Joanna frowned, halting on her way to the kitchen.

  ‘No. Joshua came back and—’

  ‘Joshua did?’ The mugs rattled in her hands as she almost dropped them in her surprise. ‘And you actually sat and drank coffee together?’

  Dan looked up with a grin, giving her his full attention now. ‘Well, it beats pistols any day.’

  Joanna sat down shakily in one of the armchairs. ‘Wh-what did you talk about?’

  ‘The weather to start with. Then we got on to football, America—’

  ‘Dan!’

  ‘But we did,’ he insisted.

  ‘Football?’ she derided. ‘Joshua has never been interested in football.’

  ‘Well, we definitely talked about it,’ Dan shrugged. ‘And he seemed to know what he was talking about too. He’s quite a nice man once you get past that air of aloofness.’

  ‘I wouldn’t know,’ she said stiffly. ‘I never really got past it.’

  ‘You must have done!’

  ‘Not really,’ she shook her head. ‘Oh, at times I suppose I did, but I’ve always been a little—no, a lot, in awe of him.’

  ‘Of your own husband?’ Dan looked incredulous.

  ‘You don’t know all the circumstances, Dan.’ She had never got around to telling Dan the reason Joshua had married her.

  ‘I’d love to hear them some time.’ He gave her an avid look.

  ‘Well, you aren’t going to.’ She stood up determinedly. ‘Now get your things together and go home; I have to get my dinner on.’

  ‘So nice to be wanted!’.

  ‘Er—Why did Joshua come back this time?’ Joanna lingered on in the room.

  ‘Would you believe, he forgot something else?’ Dan taunted mockingly.

  Joanna frowned; a forgetful memory had never been something Joshua had suffered from in the past. But then he had changed a lot this last year; he seemed more relaxed, less the aloof stranger he had become before he left for the States. If he had spoken to Dan about football he had certainly changed; the sport had never interested him in the past.

  ‘I’m going now.’ Dan came into the kitchen to see her a few minutes later. ‘Have a good evening.’ He kissed her lightly on the cheek.

  ‘You too,’ she smiled.

  ‘Oh, I will,’ he grinned. ‘By the way, I gave Joshua that spare key to the flat you leave on the hook over there,’ he added as an afterthought.

  Joanna frowned, glancing at the empty hook next to the cooker. ‘Did he ask for it?’

  ‘No. But he can hardly keep knocking for entrance to his own wife’s home, now can he?’ Dan derided.

  ‘No, I—I suppose not,’ she answered in a preoccupied voice. ‘Did he say what time he would be back?’

  ‘Nope. And I didn’t ask him,’ Dan grinned. ‘None of my business, is it? But I did emphasise the fact that I have a very heated relationship going with Carmella.’

  She evaded his gaze, unwilling to show how much his next answer mattered to her. ‘What was his reaction?’

  ‘He didn’t have one,’ Dan told her cheerfully. ‘See you tomorrow.’ He was whistling tunelessly as he left.

  He didn’t have one! Could Joshua really be so uninterested in what she had been doing, who she had been seeing for the last year?

&nb
sp; She was in her bedroom changing for dinner when she heard his key in the door, and her breath caught in her throat just at the thought of seeing him again. She had chosen to wear a royal blue silky shirtwaister dress, its tie emphasising the narrowness of her waist and slender hips. Her hair was soft and newly washed, her make-up light, the plum-coloured lipgloss clearly outlining the provocative pout of her lips.

  ‘I’m back, Joanna.’ He knocked lightly on her bedroom door, just the sound of his voice increasing her heart-rate.

  She opened the bedroom door to him; his expression was enigmatic as he looked down at her. ‘Just in time for dinner,’ she told him brightly, determined to act natural tonight. ‘It should be ready in about half an hour.’

  He nodded, the sheepskin jacket already discarded, his black clothing suiting his rugged good looks. ‘I’ll just shower and change, then.’

  A mental picture of the dinners they used to share, with Joshua all stiff and formal in a dinner suit and herself coldly sophisticated, flashed into her mind. ‘Joshua!’ she blushed as he turned back from entering the spare bedroom, ‘I—Wear something casual, hmm?’ She watched him anxiously as she waited for his reaction.

  His brow cleared of the frown that had appeared when she called his name, an amused smile curved his lips. ‘I don’t have anything else with me,’ he explained. ‘I left all my dinner suits at the house when I left.’

  ‘Oh, good. I mean—’

  ‘You mean “oh, good”,’ he drawled as she blushed again. ‘You’re looking very beautiful tonight, Joanna,’ he told her softly. ‘That shade of blue suits you.’

  Joanna was still filled with the happy glow his compliment had caused when he joined her in the kitchen twenty minutes later, his only concession to formality being that his shirt was buttoned almost up to his throat. Almost, but not quite; a temptingly soft tendril of wiry hair was still visible at the vee-neckline. Joanna drank in his appearance like a thirsty man drinks water after coming out of a desert, loving the way the navy blue cords clung to his long legs and thighs, the lighter blue shirt making his eyes appear almost the same colour.

  He grimaced as she continued to stare at him, misunderstanding her fixed gaze. ‘I’m afraid I’ve become very casual during my year in America. Even a business suit can occasionally look overdressed over there.’