Semi-Detached Marriage Read Online Free PDF Page A

we going to start a family. Though why she always picks on me when the
others have been married longer, I don't know.'
    'What did you tell her?'
    'That we didn't want any children, of course,
ever. We agreed on that right at the start.'
    'Did we? I don't remember incorporating it
into the marriage vows.'
    The slightly sardonic note in his voice made
Cassie look at him sharply, but then she laughed. 'Simon, don't tease. You know
it was an accepted thing.'
    He was silent for a moment, then said rather
absently, 'Yes, of course.'
    He changed the subject then, and it seemed no
time at all before they got home, grabbed a few hours' sleep and Cassie was
rushing around to get ready for the trip to Paris. Simon dropped her off at the
    Underground station and Cassie gave him a
swift kiss of farewell.
    "Bye, darling. Must rush I'm sure I'm
going to be late,' Cassie said hurriedly as she hauled her case out of the car.
    Simon laughed. 'Stop panicking, you've got
plenty of time.'
    But Cassie was already shutting the car door.
'I'll call you tonight. 'Bye!'
    But when she did finally get round to phoning
him late that evening her only reply was from the metallic sounding voice on
the answer-phone tape. She had spent an exciting, exhausting day booking into a
hotel, meeting her French contacts, and being introduced to the team of young
French designers, who had insisted on taking her out to dinner. Cassie spoke
    French reasonably well, but it had been a
strain trying to follow and join in a conversation on style and design that had
turned into a prolonged debate with good-natured but voluble argument ranging
back and forth, and it had been late when they finally broke up and she had got
a taxi back to her hotel.
    There was also a trip out to a fabrics
factory so that
    Cassie could check on the quality of the
cloth that was to be used, and here again there was some hard bargaining, but
at last they managed to agree on figures for quantity and price that left
everyone happy, and Cassie also had the satisfaction of getting the designers
to sign an exclusive contract with Marriott & Brown's which also gave them
the first refusal on their next season's collection.
    Somehow, during that second busy day, she
found the time to phone Simon's office and they told her that he had gone back
to Scotland, which she had already guessed was the most probable reason for his
absence.
    They gave her a number to ring and she tried
it that evening, but she had such a terrible time trying to get through that in
the end she just gave it up as a bad job.
    Now she looked down at the receiver in her
hand in some puzzlement, almost as if it could tell her why her husband didn't
answer. Her finely-arched brows drew together into a frown, then she shrugged
philosophically.
    Well, there was nothing she could do about it
here and now anyway. Stifling a yawn, she left a message for him on the tape to
say that she had arrived safely, then got ready for bed. This kind of life was
very stimulating, of course, but it was also certainly very tiring.
    The next two days were also extremely hectic
as Cassie attended the fashion show, taking notes of the garments she
particularly liked the look of, and got together with the designers and a
French manufacturer who was to produce cheaper versions of the clothes for
Marriott & Brown's. Quite a lot of haggling took place and, being in
France, most of it was done over a meal and a bottle of wine.
    Thursday saw her back in London, but when she
took the lift up to the top floor of the Marriott & Brown building to her
office to make out her report on the Paris trip, she was immediately greeted by
the news that Don Ashby, the head buyer for the whole of the fashion
department, had broken a leg while skiing and wouldn't be able to return to
work for quite some time.
    'We only heard yesterday,' her secretary told
her excitedly. 'It seems he went out on the ski slopes after a blizzard during
the night, but there was ice under the snow and he