Page 83 of The Honeymoon Affair

‘Darling Iseult, of course I didn’t. I asked you to marry me because I’m madly in love with you and I can’t imagine my life without you and I want to grow old with you. Older,’ he amends. ‘One of the pieces did mention that you were half my age. Idiots.’

‘Age is just a number,’ I remark.

‘They mentioned Ariel, too.’ He squirms somewhat uncomfortably on the chair. ‘I thought you might have read the comments.’

‘I don’t have time to check social media at work,’ I tell him. ‘And I’m not surprised she got a mention. You two have a working relationship and she’s very glamorous.’

‘You think she’s glamorous?’ He looks surprised.

‘Charles! She’s beautiful. So stylish and confident.’

‘Ah, well. I’m not sure she’d say that herself.’

I’m pretty sure she would.

‘There’s something I need to explain about Ariel and me,’ he says.

Despite the warmth of the fire, I feel a sudden chill.

‘It’s our divorce,’ he says. ‘It’s not finalised yet.’

‘What! You told me she was your ex when we were on holiday.’

‘She is my ex,’ says Charles. ‘Couldn’t be more ex. Just not, well, legally ex.’

‘You asked me to marry you when you’re already married?’ My heart is pounding.

‘Iseult. Izzy. You know yourself Ariel and I aren’t living together. You’ve stayed in my house. I told you she has an apartment of her own. And we can hardly be less together than me going to the Caribbean without her for six weeks. You must see that.’

Well, true. I’d go ballistic if my husband went to a tropical island without me.

‘It really is a technical thing,’ says Charles. He goes on to explain that when they’d got everything together and were ready to send the papers to the courts, a whole heap of deals for him had come up and they’d both been overwhelmed with signing various documents. And that Ariel, as the applicant, had told her solicitor not to bother about it for a while, and Charles himself had put the papers to one side and forgotten about them. And that every so often one or the other would talk about sending them in, but they hadn’t done it yet because there didn’t seem to be any rush. ‘But now we will,’ he says. ‘And given that it’s uncontested, it won’t take long for it to be finalised, I’m sure.’

I’m trying to come to terms with the fact that Charles is married. He might not be living with Ariel, but he’s married to her. And that changes everything.

‘No it doesn’t,’ he says when I say this. ‘It changes absolutely nothing. Both of us have had relationships since our separation. Nothing serious, certainly on my side. I don’t know about hers.’

‘And the ring she wears?’

He looks at me in confusion.

‘On her wedding finger.’

‘It was her wedding ring.’

‘She’s still wearing her wedding ring! Even though you’re supposed to be getting a divorce.’ I’m having to work to keep calm here.

‘From the minute she saw it, she wanted that ring,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t look like a wedding ring, so it’s not really an issue if she wears it. It was a very expensive piece of jewellery, after all.’

I say nothing.

‘Anyhow, we’re getting our respective solicitors on the case right away,’ he continues. ‘I want nothing more than to marry you. You’ve got to believe me.’

‘And Ariel?’

‘She’s happy to get the divorce over with too. She’s certainly not going to throw a spanner in the works. I promise you our relationship is purely professional.’

‘OK,’ I say slowly.