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When they had been ht take a weekend off and visit London ‘It would give me a chance to meet some of your friends and catch up with the theatre, and you could report back to your company’

Each ti in with her plans But he did agree that they should return to Venice to celebrate their first wedding anniversary

~

Ruth hoped the teek break would revive the ht even inspire Max, when he returned to Jersey, to finally settle on some prereater contrast to the honeymoon they had shared the year before

It was raining as the plane touched down at Venice airport, and they stood shivering in a long queue as they waited for a taxi When they arrived at the hotel, Ruth discovered that Max thought she had organised the booking He lost his teer, and stored around in the rain with their luggage for over an hour, they ended up in a backstreet hotel that could only supply a sle beds, above the bar

Over drinks that evening, Max confessed that he had left his credit cards in Jersey, so he hoped Ruth wouldn’t ot ho most of the bills lately anyway, but decided noas not the time to raise the subject

In Florence, Ruth hesitantly mentioned over breakfast that she hoped he would havepremises for his company once they returned to Jersey, and enquired innocently if the firress

Max ie and walked out of the breakfast roo him all the time She didn’t see him for the rest of the day

In Roularly going off without warning, soone to bed

Ruth was relieved when the plane took off for Jersey Once they were back in St Helier she , and to try to be supportive and understanding about Max’s lack of progress But however hard she tried, her efforts weresullen silences or bouts of temper

As the row further and further apart, and Ruth no longer bothered to ask how the search for preo assumed that the whole idea had been abandoned, and could only wonder if Max had ever been given such an assignment in the first place

It was over breakfast onethat Max suddenly announced that the fir a branch in St Helier, and had written to tell him that if he wanted to remain as a partner, he would have to return to London and resume his old position

‘And if you refuse?’ asked Ruth ‘Is there an alternative?’

‘They’ve made it all too clear that they would expect nation’

‘I’d be quite happy to ht solve their problems