As Sweet as Honey

42




In bed that night, Meterling let loose her desire ferociously, leaving Simon a little breathless and surprised. Later, he raised himself onto an elbow and gazed at his wife.

“What, my love?” he asked.

“Do you think he’s gone?”

“I don’t know. I hope so. I hope he’s gone for good. I loved Archer, but—”

“I know.”

“You can ask your ayurvedic doc when you go back to him.”

“Hmm.” She placed her hand on his chest. “Sometimes, I think we should take Oscar back to Pi.”

“So you can eat mangoes?”

“Don’t be absurd! But—I don’t fit in, Simon! I wear the wrong clothes, I make the wrong foods—”

“What are you talking about? You looked gorgeous tonight—Susan especially envies your saris, and the food was bloody brilliant. She didn’t mean what she said, you know.”

“I don’t know. She’s protective, just like Archer. But Oscar—doesn’t he deserve to grow up with his cousins?”

“They’re all a decade older than him … Meti, I don’t understand, aren’t you happy here?”

“I’m happy with you. I’m happy with your family. I’m glad I’m getting to know Dr. Morgan—”

“Weren’t you surprised when her partner turned out to be a woman?”

“Her receptionist. She’s beautiful, isn’t she? Simon, don’t get me off track.”

“I don’t want to live in Madhupur.”

“Why?”

“It’s not my home. This is my place with you, with us. My job, everything.”

“And how am I to cope, without my family? Your uncle had a mistress from Pi.”

“What does that have to do with anything? I don’t understand, you were so passionate just a while ago, and now you’re so upset.”

“Do you think that woman had a chance to say no? If she was working for him, and the boss wanted her, what power did she have to refuse? She might have even been married, with children.”

“It’s such an old story, Meti,” said Simon, rolling onto his back.

“But it explains Susan’s anger toward Pi.”

“C’mon, don’t worry about all that.” He tried to put his arms around her, but she shrugged him off. “Didn’t I promise you I would always hold you tight when you needed it, be your strength as you are mine?”

“It’s just odd. I never thought of your family as having anything they’d be ashamed of, except, well—”

“Us? You mean the only strange thing is us.” He paused. “My family has owned a gin distillery for over two hundred years, which I know to you is not a great deal of time, since you yourself are descended from one of thirteen original sages a millennium ago—”

“Shut up!”

He kissed her ear. “The thing is, our history is wretched. We’ve led masses of people to ruin their lives with alcoholism, we have twisted personal lives—there are stories!—and we continue on. Our lives are messy. Everything is messy, you know that. By the way, what was that poem about? Is Neela in love with you?”

“She’s in love with everyone. She’s protective, too. Simon, who’s Mouxx?”

“What?”

“There was a postcard—look, it was stuck in this book.”

“God, I thought I threw that out years ago.” He frowned. “Archer—it was a long time ago,” he replied, shutting his eyes again.

“Tell me.”

“Archer wanted to marry her—decades ago. She was a banker’s daughter, slumming in the East End. I was awestruck when I first met her—earrings down to her shoulders, very high heels; she looked just this side of a call girl. I thought she was fantastic.”

“Yes?”

“Well, I was thirteen. I pretty much thought any girl over twenty fantastic.”

“So Archer wanted to marry her.”

“But his mother disapproved. She moved to Paris, and he never heard from her again.”

“But the postcard?”

“I found it years later. After all that time. I guess she did get in touch, but my aunt must have hidden it. You know, she could have easily tossed it in the fire, but she stuck it in a book. Maybe it helped her conscience.”

“To think—”

“—if Archer had wanted to read Conan Doyle instead of Miss Marple.”

“Simon, it’s not funny.”

“I know. I was furious with my aunt at first, but when I found the postcard, Archer was happily ensconced on Pi, and seemed to have forgotten her. I don’t know what happened to her. Probably went back to Bombay.”

“Bombay … Bombay? Why?”

“Her family was there, and she was born there, too.”

“So she was Indian.”

“Oh yes, though she tried hard to shed her roots.”

“So Archer was in love with an Indian girl before me.”

Simon was silent.

“Your entire family is fixated on South Asian women.”

“It was a good dinner, darling.”

“Don’t change the subject. Maybe we should move back to Pi.”

“Tomorrow … let’s talk about it later.”

“Simon, do you think Susan will tell Oscar about Archer?”

“No. Susan might be crazy, but she’ll always put Oscar’s interests first.”

“What if she decides it is in his best interest to know the truth?”

“That his mother once slept with her brother and then married him to cause him to die?”

“Well, no.”

“Meti, let it go. I know it’s easy for me to say, but you have to let the past rest, and stop blaming yourself.”

“Susan?”

“Susan is mourning her brother, she’s not mourning his marriage. And no, she will let us tell him the truth when he’s old enough.”

They were quiet after that, immersed in their own thoughts until exhaustion hit and they slept.