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‘Who was it?’ she asked him nervously.
Did her voice sound as rough and anxious to him as it did to her?
Apparently not, because there was not a trace of any suspicion or concern in Joel’s voice when he told her carelessly, ‘I don’t know; they hung up. Must have been a wrong number.’
Kenneth; it had to be Kenneth. He had rung several times at home already even though she had begged him not to do so.
As Joel looked across at Sally he was suddenly made aware again of just how tired and pale she looked.
As he watched her she lifted her hand and pushed her hair back off her face. A painful knot of emotion tightened inside him.
‘Sal…’
Warily she looked at him.
‘It’s your day off tomorrow. Why don’t we go out somewhere together… just the two of us?’
‘Go somewhere? How can we?’ She sighed. ‘Have you really forgotten what I’ve got to do tomorrow, Joel?’
He was frowning now, the warmth gone from his voice, leaving it sharp with irritation.
‘You’re not still going on about your sister’s damn wallpaper, are you? I told you. I am not redoing it…’
‘Then I’ll have to, won’t I?’
‘Sally,’ Joel pr
otested wearily, ‘you…’
But it was too late; she was already halfway out of the door and plainly not interested in listening to whatever he had to say.
Didn’t she realise how it would make him look if she went ahead and did it—how it would make that sister of hers crow? Couldn’t she just for once have supported him… taken his side… seen his point of view instead of immediately siding with her sister, without even bothering to listen to him?
* * *
Sally felt as though Joel was a stranger to her these days, a different man from the one she had married—a different man even from the one who had been made redundant from Kilcoyne’s.
He had been so unhappy, unable to talk or think about anything else. Now, though, Joel didn’t seem to care any longer that he was out of work; he sang and whistled in the house, joked with the children, laughed and played with them in a way she had never known him do before.
He actually seemed to be enjoying life, as though… as though… As she struggled with her thoughts, fresh tears filled her eyes.
Once he would never have let her leave the house like that with an argument between them unresolved. Once he would have been the one to go to Daphne’s and redo the wallpapering; once he would have been the first to notice that something was wrong and to demand to know what it was. Once he would have been immediately aware and suspicious of Kenneth’s presence in her life; once he had thrown the warmth of his protection and his love around her as possessively as he had thrown his leg over her body in bed at night, drawing her close to him, securing her to him.
She shivered suddenly. He slept with his back to her now, leaving a cold, empty space in the bed between them.
Once he had told her that he would love and look after her forever.
* * *
Silently Joel watched as Sally carefully assembled everything she would need.
She hadn’t spoken to him once this morning, studiously ignoring him, just as she had ignored the cup of tea he had made her, making herself a fresh one instead.
His irritation clashed with the guilt he was feeling.
He wished now he had never given in to that crazy impulse to ignore his suspicion that he was hanging the wallpaper the wrong way, but he was dammed if he was going to back down and give Daphne the triumph of belittling him a second time. Couldn’t Sally see that her sister was just using him… them; couldn’t she see just how she was playing into her hands by giving in to her?
He looked across at her. She had her back to him, and she looked tired and vulnerable, her shoulders slightly hunched. A feeling of pain and guilt swept over him. He put down his mug and walked over to her.
