The Man in the Net Read Online Free Page A

all right. Honestly, I’m all right. And, darling, I’m so sorry. How could I have said those things? Of course I see you’ve got to turn Charlie Raines down. We’re better here. We’re both better here. And I did have a drink. Only one. I swear it. But it’s all right. It’s nothing to worry about.”
    She drew away from him, smiling up at him, her huge green eyes glistening with the suggestion of tears.
    “It’s just that I needed time to get used to it. Don’t you see? Springing it on me like that. It wasn’t easy. Right away … having to take it. You know it isn’t easy for me. If you’d done it another way, if you’d been a little more tactful …”
    Her hand moved up from his shirt collar and caressed his neck. Already she was rewriting the scene in her mind. Already she was seeing herself as the sensitive wife who’d been a little unreasonable because her husband had handled her clumsily.
    Even now she was still capable of staggering him.
    “Darling, you’ve got to hurry and change. You should be leaving for Vickie’s right now.”
    “Me? You’re not going?”
    “Oh, I couldn’t possibly—not now.”
    “Then I won’t go either.”
    “But of course you’ve got to go. One of us must go. What would she think? It’s her birthday. We’ve got the present and everything. Give her my love and say I’ve got one of my migraines. I’ll lie down on the bed for a while. I’ll be all right.”
    From where he stood, the bar-table was in his direct line of vision. Almost without his realizing it, his eyes settled on the bottle of gin.
    Linda’s voice came quick and sharp. “Trust me, John. Trust me just for once. If you knew how important it is to trust me.”
    There it was again—the cry from the heart, and the dilemma. If he called the Careys to say neither of them were coming, he’d be undermining her with an obvious lack of faith. But, then, if he did leave her here alone …
    He turned back to her. Her face was imploring—a little girl’s face.
    “She knows about my migraine. They all do. Tell her I didn’t call because I was hoping right up to the last minute that I’d feel well enough to go.”
    Didn’t he have to trust her? If he didn’t, after a direct plea like that, wouldn’t it be admitting the total defeat of their marriage?
    He said, “You really think it’s best for me to go? That’s really what you want?”
    “Yes, yes. And I won’t—I swear I won’t …”
    “Okay, then. Where’s the present?”
    “It’s upstairs in the bedroom. It’s all beautifully wrapped. I wrapped it myself.”
    She was smiling happily now. She slipped her arm around his waist. They started up the stairs together. John was remembering that they’d bought the tray for Vickie together three days before in an antique shop. It had been the woman in the store who had gift-wrapped it.
    In the bedroom Linda lay down on the bed. John peeled off his work clothes and took a shower. When he came back from the bathroom, she was still lying there with her eyes closed. He put on a shirt and tie and a summer suit. As he was brushing his hair, she called softly: “John, John darling.”
    He put down the brush and turned to her. Her eyes were open and she was stretching her arms up toward him. He crossed to the bed.
    “Kiss me, John.”
    He bent over. She put her arms around his neck, drawing his mouth down to hers. Her lips clung to his in a long, passionate kiss. Her breath smelt of peppermint life-savers with a faint metallic back-taste of liquor.
    “I’m sorry, John.”
    “It’s okay.”
    “I want you to be happy. That’s all I care about in the world—that you should achieve what you want to achieve—that you should live the life you want to live. Nothing else matters but that.”
    “Sure, Linda.”
    Her arms were still around his neck. Her mouth slid to his cheek. “Darling, if it was twice as much as you were getting before, it would be about