The Cold Wife

by Ruth Ann Nordin

  That Friday as they packed for the trip, Justin notified her that they would have to share a bedroom at Mr. Davidson’s house. “Don’t worry. I won’t take advantage of the situation,” he assured her. “Should you decide you want to consummate our marriage, I’ll be more than happy to oblige you. I’ll just wait for your signal.” She was too excited and nervous to speak. She decided to pack her new nightgown for this occasion.

  When they arrived at the Davidson residence, she noticed that the couple prided themselves on their mansion and collection of flowers in the yard. On the inside of the house, she was shocked when she saw all the cats running around the place. A couple of birds remained free to fly around. She was afraid one would fly down on her but, to her relief, none did. During their dinner, a small poodle sat on the table in the place next to Mrs. Veronica Davidson. She insisted the dog receive the best part of the steak and cut it up into bite-sized pieces and set them on her best china. The dog even drank from a crystal bowl. The cats were given their own scratching posts next to their own miniature mansions, and the ten birds had fancy birdhouses. Veronica was an eccentric fifty-two-year-old woman.

  “We don’t have human children,” she told them at one point during the meal. “Our pets are our kids.” Then she went into a detailed description of each animal’s personality and likes and dislikes. “I even have an entire room where I display all of their paintings. They are very artistic,” she told Carrie.

  Carrie forced herself to smile. She decided that even if she had to adopt children, she would find a way to have them. She didn’t want to end up like Veronica. The woman gave her the creeps. She suddenly realized that the next day was going to be a long one since she had to spend it with her.

  Mr. Davidson remained quiet during the entire meal. The only time he did contribute to the conservation was to grunt when his wife asked him, “Isn’t that right, Howy?”

  “Howy,” Carrie soon learned, was short for Howard.

  After dinner, Veronica gave Carrie the tour of her pets’ houses while Howard showed Justin his collection of animal heads. Carrie tried to pay attention to Veronica but after the fifth house, all the houses began to look alike. By the time it was eleven, her eyelids were drooping. All that she wanted to do was sleep.

  “Well, we can continue to talk about this tomorrow,” Veronica told her as she patted her hand. “I will have to show you all the scrapbooks for each of my kids.”

  There was more to this woman’s pet collection? Carrie simply nodded and followed the maid to her room for the night.

  Justin was still listening to Howard, so she changed into her newlywed nightgown and went to bed. She wondered if Justin found the evening remotely interesting. She had been bored to tears. She couldn’t imagine how many scrapbooks that Veronica could possibly own, and she dreaded finding out.

  She waited for Justin to show up but she fell asleep shortly after her head hit the pillow. Surprisingly, she heard Justin enter the room and softly shut the door. As soon as she realized he was there, she was wide awake. She heard him quietly move around the room and get ready for bed. She wasn’t sure what she should do, so she finally opted to wait for him to make the first move.

  He slid into bed next to her. She was keenly aware of his body, though he wasn’t touching her. Her heart raced with a mixture of feelings. She was as nervous as she could possibly be. She also experienced an exciting thrill of anticipation that increased the heat in her face and pounding of her heart. She had her back turned to him so she couldn’t see what he was doing or how he was lying on the bed. She was too timid to roll onto her back to find out.

  As the minutes passed, she realized that he was keeping his word. He really wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation. He would wait for her permission to approach her. She wasn’t sure why, but she was disappointed. If he loved her as much as he claimed, then wouldn’t he at least make an attempt to get her permission? As it was, he seemed as interested in her as she was in his investment reports.

  The minutes turned into an hour. And one hour, turned into two, and then three. She lay in bed, unable to sleep. Her body was too wound up to relax, no matter what she did. She closed her eyes and counted backwards. She imagined being at the beach with the sound of the surf pounding against the sand. Just the very nearness of him is driving me crazy. She gritted her teeth and willed the building tension in her to die down, but the more she tried to resist it, the more she wanted him. Why doesn’t he make a move toward me? Was he lying every time he expressed his desire to consummate their marriage?

  Through the next hour, she began to grow angry. He should at least say something or touch me or kiss me. He should do something to engage my interest as he has done on several occasions in the past when we were at the house. She heard his steady breathing. Was he asleep? She frowned. Was she so dull that he could actually sleep with her next to him? She decided it was time to make him aware that she was beside him in a very intimate place. She had to be careful in how she did this since she didn’t want him to think she was doing it on purpose. She closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep as she rolled over so that she was facing him. She kept her eyes closed and wiggled toward him until her body lightly touched his. He feels so amazing!

  “Finally!” He rolled off his back and on top of her.

  He kissed her passionately. The very intensity of his actions sparked a fire in her that raced through her entire body.

  He quickly sat up and unbuttoned his pajama shirt. He threw the shirt aside and settled back on top of her. “I was beginning to think you weren’t going to give me permission to do this,” he whispered in her ear as his hands hungrily roamed her body, caressing her breasts and her hips.

  “You...you weren’t asleep?” she stammered, hardly able to focus on anything but how good he was making her feel. She pulled him closer to her.

  “Are you kidding? I’ve been too wound up to sleep.” He kissed her neck.

  “Then why didn’t you do something?” Though she tried to sound appropriately angry, she was enjoying his actions too much to give energy to that anger.

  “I promised to wait for you to tell me you wanted this.” He kissed her again. “I knew you weren’t asleep.”

  “How could you know that?”

  She heard him softly laugh. “You weren’t snoring.”

  Oh. She had forgotten she told him that she did that. She pulled him closer to her as he continued to kiss her. She was hardly aware of the knocking on the door, but it continued until she realized she wasn’t imagining it. Justin yelled for the person to go away before he kissed her again. The knocking didn’t stop. It only grew louder.

  Hands on her hips, Justin stopped kissing her and sat up, clearly annoyed. “Who is it?” he demanded, not hiding his agitation.

  “Mr. Davidson wants you downstairs right away,” the person on the other side of the door informed him.

  She recognized Harrison Jr.’s voice. Apparently, so did Justin. He looked as startled as she felt that he was there.

  “Go away, Harrison,” he snapped. “I’ll be down there when I’m ready.”

  “He is quite insistent that it be now,” the other man insisted.

  Justin rolled his eyes. “I’ll be down there when I’m ready,” he repeated through clenched teeth.

  “Aren’t you done with your wife yet? You’ve had all night.”

  Suddenly feeling as if everyone knew what they were about to do, she moved away from Justin. Her face was hot from embarrassment.

  Justin heavily sighed and resigned himself to the task at hand. He climbed out of the bed and opened the door. “I’ll be there,” he snapped. “Go away.”

  She couldn’t make out what Harrison told him, but she saw Justin’s shoulders tense before he shut the door.

  When Justin turned to her, he groaned. “I suppose if I got back into bed with you and continued what we started, he would return and bother us again.” He angrily grabbed a clean pair of black pants and a green long
sleeved shirt. “I’m sorry, Carrie. I had no idea that Harrison would be here, and I didn’t dream for a minute that Mr. Davidson would want to hunt at this early hour. He had me up past midnight. I thought he was going to sleep in.” He looked out the window. “It’s not even daybreak for goodness’ sakes.”

  She watched as he removed his pajama pants. He had a gorgeous body. She wanted to ask him to stay with her instead and to forget about trying to gain the older man as a client, but she lost her nerve as he put his pants and shirt on. Though she was disappointed, she replied, “It’s alright, Justin. Your uncle warned me that Mr. Davidson can be demanding.”

  He glanced at her with longing in his eyes. He went over to her and kissed her. “Harrison said that Mr. Davidson plans to be back at two. After I come back, let’s go to my uncle’s house and spend the rest of the week there. Then we can pick up where we left off.”

  The promise of making love later that day brightened her mood. She nodded her agreement, returned his kiss and watched as he finished getting dressed.

  “You might as well sleep in,” he told her as he tied his boots. “You’ll need your energy for tonight.”

  Her heart raced as he smiled suggestively at her. She settled into bed as he left the room and softly closed the door behind him. Shortly, she fell asleep.

  ***

  When she woke up, the sun was brightly shining. She looked at the clock and saw that it was already ten. She hadn’t realized she slept so long. She quickly got ready for the day and packed her suitcase, grateful that two o’clock was only four hours away. It wouldn’t be long before she could get away from the many animals that lurked about the house in the oddest places. On her way down the steps, she nearly tripped on a cat that hissed at her. She jumped back and waited for the angry animal to run up the steps before she continued her descent down the steps. When she reached the bottom of the staircase, a bird flew past her. She shuddered. She didn’t like feeling its wings against her hair. I’ll be glad to get out of here!

  She hadn’t had any pets while growing up, and being surrounded by so many of them made her aware that none were better than a zoo full of them. She hated to think of how much time the servants spent cleaning up the bird poop. She cringed. She hadn’t considered a bird pooping in her hair until that moment. She was tempted to throw on a hat but it was improper to do such a thing indoors.

  By the time she reached the parlor, she recognized Julie’s laughter as she listened to Veronica discuss her pets’ personalities. She paused. Of course, Julie would be there since Harrison was. She wasn’t sure what to say to her friend. If Julie is still my friend. Their last conversation hadn’t ended well. She took a deep breath and entered the parlor.

  Veronica was showing Julie one of her many scrapbooks. “This is Puffy’s favorite shirt,” the older woman happily said. “I made it myself after a pattern I saw in the store.”

  Carrie couldn’t remember which cat Puffy was and didn’t really care to remember. The two women glanced up as Carrie walked further into the room.

  “It’s nice of you to make an appearance,” Veronica commented.

  Carrie didn’t know how to respond since she couldn’t tell if Veronica was happy to see her or being sarcastic. “I’m sorry I overslept,” she finally decided to say.

  “Perhaps you and Mr. Monroe should have come at four thirty like Harrison and Julie Grant did.”

  So she’s not pleased with me. At least Carrie knew where she stood with the woman. “We probably should have,” she consented as she awkwardly stood in front of them. “Good morning, Julie.”

  Julie smiled at her. “Hello, Carrie.”

  “You two know each other?” Veronica asked.

  “Yes. We’ve been friends for a long time.”

  Carrie felt much better knowing that Julie hadn’t crossed her off her friends list.

  “Well,” Veronica began, “this is quite unusual. My husband will pick one of your husbands to work with. I suppose it depends on which one suits his fancy. He believes that a partnership should be amiable. Hopefully, your husbands are both charming men.”

  “Mr. Davidson will pick the one he wants, but it has nothing to do with us, right Carrie?” Julie asked.

  Carrie relaxed. “Right.”

  “Come look at Puffy’s diamond necklace,” Veronica insisted, patting the seat next to her.

  Carrie obeyed, though the couch was meant for seating two people, so they were all crunched together. She struggled to pay attention to the woman but two birds kept circling the room and three cats climbed the furniture in an effort to get the birds. At one point, one of the cats ran on her and leapt off of her head. She shrieked and jumped up. She tripped on another cat which darted in front of her. Startled, she fell to the side and reached for the end table to steady herself but it was too light to support her weight so she knocked it over. She didn’t have to see the cat shaped glass lamp to know that it smashed into a million pieces.

  Veronica bolted out of her seat and cried out, “That was a gift to Zipper on his second birthday!”

  “I’m sorry. It was an accident,” Carrie stammered. She put her hands on the floor to steady herself enough so she could stand. That was a bad decision, for shards of glass cut into her palms. She brought her hands up and nearly shrieked when she saw that a couple of shards were stuck in her hands.

  “You’re getting blood all over Tiffy’s white rug!” Veronica gasped.

  “Did it occur to you that I might be in pain?” she yelled. The woman and her stupid animals were impossible!

  “Here. Let me help you up,” Julie offered as she rushed over to lift Carrie by the elbows. “We need to get those out,” she said as she inspected her hands. “Fortunately, it looks worse than it is.” Turning to Veronica, she asked, “Do you have any rubbing alcohol?”

  “Get out of this room before you destroy something else,” Veronica told Carrie.

  “We can buy you a new lamp and rug,” Julie offered.

  “Can you replace a memory?” Veronica asked. “Forget it. Your friend has caused a lot of grief today.”

  At that moment, a bird pooped in Carrie’s hair. She screamed and ran out of the room, Julie following close behind as she raced up the stairs. She bumped into another cat on the steps and was tempted to kick it but refrained since she didn’t want to hurt the thing. She simply stepped past it and ran into the first bathroom she saw. After she removed broken pieces of glass from her hands and washed her hair, Julie came in with the rubbing alcohol.

  Julie gently applied the rubbing alcohol into her hands. “I had no idea a woman could be so attached to her animals. Did you know she has a house for each one, and those houses come with working clocks, a plush bed and individual addresses?”

  Carrie laughed. “She does go overboard in her love for her pets.”

  “Maybe that’s what happens when people don’t have children.”

  “No. I think it’s just her personality.”

  Julie finished drying her hands.

  “Thank you,” Carrie said.

  Her friend sighed as she set the bottle down on the counter. “Carrie, it was hard to get married without you and Mary there.”

  She nodded. “It was hard not to be there.” She paused. “I’m sorry I was so hard on you at my wedding. We shouldn’t let a man come between us.”

  “I’m sorry too. It was wrong for me not to tell you what was going on. I was afraid if I told you, then Harrison’s father wouldn’t let him court me anymore.”

  “Harrison’s father?”

  “His father runs his life. He tells him what to do and when to do it. Harrison’s under a lot of pressure to win this account today. I think he’s struggled his entire life to gain his father’s approval.”

  “What do you think of his father?”

  Julie shrugged. “I don’t really know much about him. Harrison tries to keep us apart. He says that his father will most likely try to tell me what to do if he got the chance. The reason I didn
’t say anything when Harrison was pretending to be interested in you is because Harrison said his father made it clear that he wouldn’t be honoring him if he didn’t go along with his plan. I’m not sure what his father’s plan was and Harrison said it was best if I stayed out of it. I know you think Harrison isn’t a good person, but I believe in him. I think when push comes to shove, he makes the right decisions.”

  Carrie wondered if that was true or not. She wanted to believe that Harrison was a decent person underneath it all for Julie’s sake, but it was hard to accept that notion when her father was forced out of town because of the Grants.

  Julie studied her. “You think he’s as bad as his father, don’t you?”

  She wanted to tell her friend no. She tried to form the word in her mouth but it wouldn’t come out.

  “I see.”

  “Julie, I hope you’re right.” It was the best she could offer her friend.

  “He wasn’t responsible for what happened to your father.”

  “Then who could it have been?”

  Her friend hesitated to answer but finally did. “Did you even stop to consider that your father may have made some bad decisions that led to his bankruptcy?”

  Carrie’s face flushed in anger at the assumption. “No. He was always careful in his work. Besides, how do you explain Mr. Rivers and Mr. Dean?”

  “I can’t but I know Harrison.”

  “Do you know him well enough?”

  “Who told you that Harrison is behind all those bankruptcies?”

  “It makes perfect sense. Why else would Harrison feign interest in me if he didn’t want to destroy my father? It’s obvious that he and his father are building a monopoly in town. When they’re done, how many people will have lost their homes and fortunes because of their greed?”

  The words were out before Carrie had time to debate whether or not saying them was a good idea. Obviously, it wasn’t. Julie was married to Harrison and would be loyal to him.

  “I think I’ll go see Veronica now,” Julie softly said.

  Carrie closed her eyes as her friend left the bathroom. She steadied her emotions before she went to her temporary room to check the clock. It wasn’t even eleven and the day was already proving to be a disaster. When she went downstairs, the maid informed her that she would not clean up the mess that Carrie created when she tripped over the cat.