Читать книгу Dorset Gap: A Short Story from the collection, Reader, I Married Him - Tracy Chevalier - Страница 7
ОглавлениеTHEY WOULD MAKE A very odd match, like daisies and gladioli, lace and leather. Ed knew that; he wasn’t stupid. Well, he was stupid in many ways, but not in that way.
He wasn’t sure why he was with her today. The night before they had been to a rave in a field in Dorset, and the next morning both had ended up in a group of people who, despite hangovers and skin grainy with dried sweat from all-night dancing, had been intent on a walk to clear their heads. That plan lasted until they stopped at a pub in a tiny village and lost momentum in front of their pints. Jenn had gazed at them all, ranged around the table in various stages of stupor, then picked up the map and left. Ed watched her from the pub window, walking away along the empty country road, her wellington boots making her look like a farmer’s wife. Beguiled by the bit of calf between the bottom of her dress and the top of her wellies that flashed with each stride, he pulled on his jumper and went after her.
He didn’t know her well. She was the housemate of a friend, studying Eng. Lit. to his Geography, so that academically their paths at university never crossed. He had seen her on the verges of parties, clutching a plastic cup of cheap warm wine that she probably took all evening to drink, sitting in a corner of the canteen with a book propped in front of her, crossing campus with a small smile, her eyes fixed on the middle distance. She was not friendless, not at all, but she was not a joiner either. Which was why Ed had been amazed to see her squashed into a corner of the car they were taking to the rave.
Now, the morning after, he caught up with her on the road that headed into the depths of the countryside. Jenn barely glanced at him, simply nodded and kept up her even pace. Her round glasses and shapeless dress and frizzed hair signalled an indifference to her appearance that made her even more attractive. It annoyed Ed, this impulse to follow someone who didn’t care, but it didn’t stop him either, didn’t make him turn back to the simple civility of a pint and a packet of crisps.
