A Glowing Future

A GLOWING FUTURE
Ruth Rendell
Six should be enough,' he said. `We'll say six tea chests, then, and one trunk.
If you'll deliver them tomorrow, I'll get the stuff all packed and maybe yourpeople
could pick them up Wednesday.' He made a note on a bit of paper. `Fine,' he said.
`Round about lunchtime tomorrow.'
She hadn't moved. She was still sitting in the big oak-armed chair atthe far
end of the room. He made himself look at her and he managed a kind of grin,
pretending all was well.
`No trouble,' he said. `They're very efficient.'
`I couldn't believe,' she said,`that you'd really do it. Not until I heard you on
the phone. I wouldn't have thought it possible. You'll really pack up all those things
and have them sent off to her.'
They were going to haveto go over it all again. Of course they were. It
wouldn't stop until he'd got the things out and himself out, away from London and her
for good. And he wasn't going to argue or make longdefensive speeches. He lit a
cigarette and waited for her to begin, thinking that the pubs would be opening in an
hour's time and he could go out then and get a drink.
`I don't understand why youcame here at all,' she said.
He didn't answer. He was still holding the cigarette box, and now he closed its
lid, feeling the coolness of the onyx on his fingertips.
She had gone white. `Just toget your things? Maurice, did you come back just
for that?
'They are my things,' he said evenly.
`You could have sent someone else. Even if you'd written to me and asked me
to do it-
`Inever write letters,' he said.
She moved then. She made a little fluttering with her hand in front of her
mouth. `As if I didn't know!' She gasped, and making a great effort she steadied hervoice. `You were in Australia for a year, a whole year, and you never wrote to me
once.'
`I phoned.'
`Yes, twice. The first time to say you loved me and missed me and were
longing to come...