Singled out, p.29
Singled Out, page 29
‘I don’t think I’d want to risk it anyway. I’d rather have you.’
It came to me that he was right: that although I still felt that great yearning for a child, what I desperately wanted and now couldn’t imagine ever losing, was Dante himself.
‘Be my Dark Lady?’ he said enticingly.
‘I don’t think Shakespeare got much further than adoring her from afar in his sonnets, did he?’
‘Then I’ve outdone the Bard already.’
‘You are a very unusual man,’ I said staring at him.
‘Because I read poetry? And is that a point in my favour, or against me?’
‘For, definitely for,’ I said.
‘Good, I don’t think you’d really be happy cooped up in my attic.’
* * *
Reader, I married him: but only after he added the clinching lure of a late honeymoon tour finishing up in Mexico to coincide with that popular festival. The Day Of The Dead.
That did it: I knew he was the man for me.
Not that I’d had any doubts once I’d accepted that we are the same kind of animal under the skin, and so understand each other’s demons. I helped him to finish his manuscript before we left for the trip, and it began to be serialised in the newspaper while we were away, the proceeds going to Paul’s widow and family.
Meanwhile my book is nearing completion, Mexico proving to be a rich source of inspiration both to me and to Dante, who has written a series of brilliant articles about the culture and political state of the country which seems to be turning into another book. I’ve thought up a great title for it: ‘Death: Enemy or Friend? Four Months in Mexico.
From being convinced that I could never live with someone permanently, I now find I cannot bear to be apart from him for very long: the fear that there is something bad out there waiting to spring will never, I suppose entirely go away.
And pictures of Elvis still make me shudder.
While we were away Pa went past the point of no return and was committed, and since then Ma seems to have taken on a new lease of life in the Highlands with Francis and Robbie.
It’s autumn now, but as things die, new life is flourishing forth.
Eddie and Rosetta are in the lodge, awaiting their baby’s arrival.
Francis and Robbie, too, are expecting the surprise advent of a little Annapurna or Kathmandu, we are not sure yet which …
And as for me, far from being obsessed with motherhood I entirely forgot about it until it suddenly dawned on me that either I’ve started an early menopause or a late baby. But I’m not mentioning either possibility to Dante until we are back home in Kedge Hall.
We will take what comes, because whatever happens we will always have each other.
Oh, and a lot of wonderful Mexican Day of the Dead souvenirs.
Epilogue: Famous Last Words
Dante, who loved well because he hated,
Hated wickedness that hinders loving.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Back home in the late autumn, when dead leaves lay like forgotten memories on the bed of the duck pond, and dead wives lay dormant awaiting the Eternal Spring, I realised how much I had learned in only a few short months:
I’ve learned that in the cycle of life sometimes you have to go back to go forwards. That some are born evil, but some have evil thrust upon them; that understanding is the path to forgiveness; and that it’s never too late to get laid, but a younger lover probably increases your chance of pregnancy.
And finally, and most importantly, as Dr Amulet Bone discovered in my latest novel: a good heart is hard to find.
Also by Trisha Ashley
Good Husband Material
The Urge to Jump
Every Woman For Herself
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
SINGLED OUT. Copyright © 2003 by Trisha Ashley. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
ISBN 0-312-32712-9
EAN 978-0312-32712-5
First published in Great Britain by Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Ltd.
First U.S. Edition: August 2004
eISBN 9781466838901
First eBook edition: February 2013
Trisha Ashley, Singled Out
