(no subject)
The rhythm was established in the beginning: a month passes, and then another, and then a little bit of extra time to be on the safe side. The extra varies, but it's chosen beforehand, always. Then the business- amazing, how much a good bakery can expand given enough undistracted time and care- needs her to travel to some other part of the country, check into a hotel somewhere, and spend three or four days away from home.
And if she should happen to meet an interesting man while she's there, what of it? To everyone else in the country but three, she's a widow.
If it happens that the interesting man is one of the three, well, she's never told that to anyone. She's bailed out of a few of these trips at the last minute to keep the men hunting him from finding out. That's hurt more than anything over these past two long years. Anticipation denied is worse, she knows now, than worrying for his safety in Iraq or Bosnia or Scotland.
There's no need to abort the mission (she thinks of it that way- it adds a little something extra to it) tonight. They're distracted. The hounds are after the wrong hare, and they've gone off to the States in pursuit. It'll be all right this time.
So Annie Wells opens the door to her hotel room and steps through without a thought in the world beyond meeting her husband tonight.
And if she should happen to meet an interesting man while she's there, what of it? To everyone else in the country but three, she's a widow.
If it happens that the interesting man is one of the three, well, she's never told that to anyone. She's bailed out of a few of these trips at the last minute to keep the men hunting him from finding out. That's hurt more than anything over these past two long years. Anticipation denied is worse, she knows now, than worrying for his safety in Iraq or Bosnia or Scotland.
There's no need to abort the mission (she thinks of it that way- it adds a little something extra to it) tonight. They're distracted. The hounds are after the wrong hare, and they've gone off to the States in pursuit. It'll be all right this time.
So Annie Wells opens the door to her hotel room and steps through without a thought in the world beyond meeting her husband tonight.