by M J Porter
Chapter Six
The sunlight shone softly through the part open bedroom curtain, waking him naturally from his deep sleep. A smile touched his face. Besides him, Rebecca was nestled in his arms, curled against his chest, and for once, she wasn’t snoring.
A year, they’d been married for a year today. He couldn’t quite believe it. He’d worried they wouldn’t make it through the first weeks, let alone the first month or even the first year. But somehow, after their terrible honeymoon, everything had calmed down.
The first night back from his honeymoon, he’d done something he’d never done before, he’d cried himself to sleep. Rebecca had showered and left him alone in their bed while she tapped away on her phone, or her laptop in the other room. Not wanting to draw attention to his hurt and unhappiness, he’d only left her alone.
When he’d woken early for work the next day, she’d been fast asleep on the sofa, the TV on quietly and her phone discarded on the floor. In a moment of compassion that went against everything he was feeling, he’d lifted her into his arms and taken her back to their bed. She’d nestled into the spot he’d not long since vacated and he’d left the house feeling a little calmer. She might not have spent the night with him, but clearly, it hadn’t been intentional, as she’d had no blanket wrapped around her. She’d even reached out for a sleepy kiss before he’d left.
His first day at his new job had likewise been far easier than he’d thought and he’d returned home feeling less apprehensive than since the wedding. Rebecca had greeted him with a smile and a romantic dinner, and every day since then, some little thing had happened to make their relationship grow stronger. Maybe he’d returned with flowers, or a book for her, or maybe she’d appeared with a brochure detailing holidays in the countryside or had finally spent the time and money to buy a pair of walking boots to allow them to enjoy walking together.
That was what they had planned for their weekend. Today was their wedding anniversary, and they were meeting up for a small celebratory meal with both sets of parents but tomorrow, they were off to the Lakes to scale mountains and spend some quality time together.
Besides him, Rebecca stirred, and he planted a delicate kiss on her neck. She smiled, half asleep, and he took it as an open invitation when she didn’t rebuff his wandering hand under the bed sheets. Instead, she smiled again as he trailed kisses along her naked shoulders and then began to work his way lower down her neck. A soft giggle left her mouth as she still feigned sleep.
Hours later they finally emerged from their bed realising that time was now a little too short for their liking. They needed to be the other side of London in less than an hour, and that was a big ask. As they showered and dressed in a frenzy of activity, dashing around their home as they tried to find suitable clothes and shoes, they both kept distracting the other and stopping altogether to cling together and kiss. Somehow they managed not to slip back into bed and arrived, only half an hour later at the restaurant Rebecca’s parents had chosen.
On the tube journey, they’d devised an excuse for their lateness and used it expansively when they noticed the disapproving looks on the faces of Rebecca’s mother and father. His parents were shooting them knowing glances that brought a rosy glow to Rebecca’s face. His brother and his wife joined in with the knowing looks until their baby son, squalling in his pushchair, distracted them. They’d not discussed it as such, but everyone around the table knew that baby Will had been conceived a year ago today as well. As such, it was a double celebration for his family.
Rebecca cooed over the chubby baby when he quieted, and the meal flew by remarkably quickly, his family managing just about to ignore the slightly frosty atmosphere from Rebecca’s parents. He looked at them closely and noticed that they seemed to have aged in the last year. He wondered what was happening with them but decided he would simply ask Rebecca later. He was sure that he’d either been told and forgotten or hadn’t been told because, really, how often did they discuss either of their parents when they were busily going about their lives.
As the meal drew to a close, his parents passed across a brightly coloured gift. His mother was clearly bursting with excitement at her gift and Rebecca eagerly wrapped the orange and red wrapping from it. She exclaimed in delight as she revealed an equally brightly coloured photograph album. As she opened the front page, a stray tear slipped from her eye, and he leant over to see what she was looking at.
It was an intimate picture of the pair of them from their wedding. Caught totally off guard, they were laughing at something, heads pressed close together, their joy shining from their eyes.
Rebecca flicked to the next page and discovered that the entire album was full of photographs they’d not known had been taken.
“We thought we’d save it for a special occasion. As lovely as the ‘official’ photos were, I believed that these showed just how much you loved each other and enjoyed your wedding day.”
Andy felt his throat grow tight as they turned page after page of the photo album, finding shots of them stood quietly together, just staring into each other's eyes, to a photo of him, waiting for his bride, a look of fear on his face. He was relieved to find one of Rebecca, her anxieties clear to see on her slightly too pale face.
He stood and walked around to his parents to hug them in thanks and noticed that his mother had a teary eye as well. His older brother, in true big brother style, simply punched him on the arm as he passed.
Rebecca’s parents looked a little uncomfortable with all the emotion on display, and he quickly helped himself to the still open photograph album in Rebecca’s hands and twirled it around so that they could see what all the fuss was about. Her mother’s face softened as she saw the first snapshot of them, and it wasn’t long until everyone had poured over the gift, laughing at some of the uninhibited photographs and cooing at others.
The meal only came to a noisy and confused end when baby Will woke and would not be shushed. With the stares of the other guests burning their backs, they bid a hasty retreat, laughing as they burst out onto the sun-drenched street into a noisy London Sunday afternoon.
Only when his brother, wife and son had departed noisily down the street, did Andy realise that Rebecca was caught up in a heated debate with her parents. He walked to where they stood, voices angry but quiet and as he put her arm out to slide it around her waist he heard the name “Sapphire” and his joy evaporated as he took in the haunted look on Rebecca’s face.
Whatever had passed between Rebecca and his parents, the mention of that one name appeared to signal the end of everything good for them. Their trip away to the Lakes was tainted by the spectre of her presence, and when they came home, more obstacles blocked their path. He had a letter informing him that his position was subject to review at work and there was no guarantee that he’d retain his past hours, working rate or job title. As it transpired, he kept his job but only by stint of reducing his hours by fifty per cent. The effect on their disposable income was immediate and caused problems from the word go.
There were jobs aplenty that he could have done to fill his empty hours, but he wanted to finish work on his doctorate, pushing himself as hard as he could to complete it, in the hope that once in possession of his PhD his department would reconsider their cutting of his hours.
Rebecca resented his loss of income, his extra time, and the hours that she said he ‘wasted’ on research that would net him nothing. She had no truck with the academic profession having found a way in the world where she could attract a good salary without having to work too hard, and an even better one if she put her mind to it. Which is what she now did, pushing herself to make up for the shortfall in her income, and with each extra hour she worked, she grew more and more resentful that he wasn’t earning the same salary as her, and that he was no longer meeting half of their expenditure.
One December evening it all came to a head when she arrived home from work late for an evening out. He was waiting for her, and as
she struggled out of her work clothes and into something new and expensive that she’d just grabbed off the rail on the way home, he queried how much the dress had cost. Her anger flared, and she informed him in frosty tones reminiscent of the chill weather outside, that it was no concern of his how she spent her money and that if he didn’t like, he could just stay at home as she wouldn’t be paying for him that night.
Embarrassed because he had no money until payday, he refused to go, and she went out alone with her cohort of pals for their annual Christmas meal. She arrived home drunk and full of remorse, but he was beyond caring. Her attitude toward money was stifling him. That night he dreamt of Sapphire for the first time in nearly eighteen months, and when he woke with Rebecca at his side, he could not stop the sign of despair that audibly escaped him. Worst still, Rebecca had been awake through the night, as often happened when she’d had too much to drink, and she informed him that he’d been talking in his sleep. What he’d said, she didn’t say, but he could imagine.
The dream had been exceptionally erotic, and he’d woken aroused and disappointed all at the same time. It was not a dream just about Sapphire as Rebecca had morphed in and out of her with a dazzling speed that left him unsure if he’d dreamt more of one or the other. With certainty, he knew that his failing relationship was looking more and more like his fault. He’d made the wrong choice nearly five years ago.
When Rebecca had left for work, he’d lain in bed until struck by a thought. Shuffling from his bed, he’d opened and closed all of the drawers on his side of the room, only crossing to Rebecca’s when he couldn’t find what he was searching for. He thought it unlikely, but then he pulled open the top drawer and found the huge sapphire stone nestled in amongst a piece of deep blue silk. Not only had she taken his stone, but she also seemed to treasure it more than he did as well.
Sudden anger flared within him. It wasn’t hers. Why did she even have it? In all honesty, he’d thought he might have left it on the bedside table in the hotel he’d stayed in before his wedding. He’d only been looking on the off chance.
He paced the room, the stone in his hand, seeming to pulse in time with his heartbeat. Why had she taken it? What did it even have to do with her? And then he stilled in thought. What did she know about it and was it possible, somehow, that what she knew, was the reason behind her outrageous behaviour on their honeymoon.
He spent the day considering what he should do with the knowledge he now held. He’d picked up the huge blue stone, almost dropping it when it seemed to spurt into life, and then he put it back in Rebecca’s drawer.
When she returned home from work he was waiting for her, a meal cooked, and a warm bath run for her. He knew she’d be tired after her night out. Her tired expression flickered with delight when she saw all the work he’d put into making up for their argument the day before, and he breathed a sigh of relief, purposefully flicking through the photos in their wedding album while she bathed her hangover away.
He was sitting at the dinner table, his hand tracing one of the group shots from the wedding when she returned. He flashed her a smile.
“I always think there’s someone missing from this photo,” he said, pointing to the view of them all smiling in the bright sunshine.
“What do you mean?” she asked. She smelt of the bubble bath he’d doused the bath with, and it made him feel sleepy just to smell it.
“Well, did we miss someone out? Wasn’t your sister there that day?”
Her expression turned blank then, not hostile, but not happy either.
“Sister?” she said, and he realised with a shock that she was about to deny ever having a sister.
“Did I get that wrong?” he asked, trying to cover his shock before she saw through his weak attempts at fishing for information. “I thought you had a sister. Don’t you?”
“No, not a birth sister no. I grew up with someone; she was adopted, but she disappeared, about the time I met you, and no one knows where she went.”
Her tone was just light enough to make it seem as though it wasn’t a problem to talk about, but he sensed some unease. He thought he’d been speaking in his sleep last night, but maybe he hadn’t.
“Anyway, put that away. I’m starving. I was too sick at lunch time to eat.”
He closed the photo album with a soft thud and placed it back on the bookcase.
“I cooked your favourite,” he offered, a soft smile on his lips. He thought he might have found out more information but actually, she’d told him all he needed to know.