How to Be a Good Wife Read Online Free PDF Page B

water shimmered in the new light. The sun made the wooden staircase glow, breaking across the floor and furniture of the living room in heavy blocks. There was the heady smell of pine. A step creaked and I stopped. After a minute of stillness, I kept going. I found the key to the cottage. Slowly, as silently as I could, I stepped across the old brown kitchen tiles, unlocked the back door and followed the path through the expanse of rocky land.
    I can see the building: near the water, perched on the edge of the sloping brown and red rocks. Behind it, the dark green forest began. The rocks were splattered with white lichen, alien red shrubbery growing from dark places in between. Stumbling a little, each step measured, I made my way. At every moment, I saw myself fall, my skull smashing like a watermelon onto the rocks.
    Ahead, the sea stretched flatly in the deserted cove. There were rocky islands not far out, breaking the surface, making it seem shallow: a flooded plain. I imagined the grey slate roofs of houses below the surface, covered by a sudden flood: tables, chairs, plates, cups and saucers, floating above their place.
    Hearing the waves breaking and smelling the sea, I began to feel awake. I pulled off my clothes and walked along a wooden jetty, settling myself on the edge. The air was fresh against my bare skin, and without thinking I dropped into the water.
    I swam down, tasting salt, the water rushing about my ears. Pushing back with my arms, I went as deep as I could. A strange blue blur filled my eyes, twisted by the light from above. My head felt lighter, my limbs loosened in their sockets. It was calm and quiet at last. The surface moved further and further away as my breath tightened across my chest. I watched it go, the shafts of sunlight blurring and dimming. I shut my eyes.
    Just when everything was perfectly still, a shadow fell. There were hands, sharp under my armpits, and my body was pulled upwards, rushing towards the surface. I kicked to get away but the world came into glimmering focus, the line of the horizon rocking. My body was too weak to break free: all I wanted was to return to the coolness beneath the water. I struggled but was still dragged backwards. My scream rang out through the morning air. Immediately, the hands disappeared.
    ‘Ssshh,’ a voice said.
    I breathed in sharply, my breaths falling over each other, unable to catch up. I could see the jetty now, only a few metres away.
    Hector was floating next to me: his hair slicked back, his wide blue eyes as dark as the water below the surface.
    He pulled himself onto the platform, reaching his arm out for me. With the sun behind him, he was little more than a shadow. I felt the strength in his brown arms as he lifted me. His body was taut and muscular, the shadow of dark hairs on his chest sparkling with trapped water.
    ‘What the hell are you doing?’ he said.
    I sank onto the wooden floor, unable to catch my breath. The sun was too bright. When I could finally open my eyes, he was gone, walking away from me along the jetty. I was shivering. I heard something behind me: he was coming back, holding a big blue towel open. Pressing it around my body, he sat down beside me.
    He looked into the dark water. ‘What were you doing?’ he said again.
    ‘I came for a swim,’ I said eventually.
    I could feel him looking down at my naked body, my frail limbs, and I pulled them up to my chest under the towel.
    He took hold of my narrow wrist, his hand tight. ‘Marta, you need to be honest with me. I know you weren’t swimming.’
    I looked down at his hand, tightening around my skin.
    ‘I thought you were starting to feel better,’ he said. ‘That staying with me was helping.’
    He looked so hurt, and I wanted to make it better. ‘It was,’ I said. ‘I just wanted a swim.’
    ‘I thought I could make you happy.’
    I tried to smile. ‘I am happy.’
    ‘I don’t know what else I can do,’ he said. ‘You’ve started taking your