Maurice Procter - Murder Somewhere in This City

He turned off the fight and went upstairs. There was a light in the bedroom, and the door was open. Julia was in bed; in his bed. She opened her eyes as he entered the room, and said drowsily: “You’ve been a long time.”

“I made some tea,” he said, covering his surprise.

He was nonplused. Had she believed that he would really carry out his threat? And, instead of resisting, was she going to use the wiles of her sex? “Come to bed, husband, but-no babies.” If that was the idea, it wasn’t going to work. He would have no more of it.

He brushed his teeth in the bathroom, then he undressed and put on his pajamas. He got into bed beside Julia. Lying flat on his back, he pushed his feet right to the bottom of the bed. Julia put an arm across his chest, and squirmed her lovely elegant body closer to him. He discovered with a thrill of amazement and irrepressible excitement that she was quite naked. Never before in all their married life had she got into bed naked.

“We’ll talk a bit,” she said. “Till you get warm.”

“Sure,” he grunted, relaxing. He was asking himself: “What’s the move? Does she think I’ll drop off to sleep?”

He had never felt less like sleep. The confiding, amorous wriggle of her body was something new. In spite of his suspicions, excitement mounted in him.

“I’ve been thinking. I think you’re right. A baby is the answer. It will make you feel more responsible: bring you home oftener and sooner, I hope. I like the idea, now,” she murmured in his ear. “I think I shall like it, starting a baby. We won’t have to-to care about anything, will we?” Her hand strayed, and she shuddered slightly. But it was a shudder with a great deal of pleasure in it.

He made some sort of reply. He could scarcely believe that this was happening.

“I’ve been thinking,” she repeated. “I’ll have to pull you round somehow. Things had gone too far. We needed a fresh start. I didn’t know how to do it. I thought selling your piano would bring you to your senses and make you realize… But it didn’t work in quite the way I expected.”

His astonishment was complete. She had never for one moment thought that there might be a parting! In all their quarrels she had never once thought of leaving him, or of him leaving her!

“It came to me suddenly, after you got so wild and threatened me,” she said. “You wanted a baby so much, and I think I’m beginning to understand why.”

She moved against him, and gently bit the lobe of his ear. “I hope it’s a girl,” she whispered. “Then I can make lovely dresses for her.”

“Any daughter of yours will be the smartest girl in town,” he said, and he meant it.

That pleased her. “Will you have to love me hard to get a girl?”

“Just as hard as ever I can,” he replied.

“I hope so,” she said.

“By God,” he thought. “We’ll make a go of it, after all. I guess I’ll have to mend my ways a bit.”

He remembered that he hadn’t thought of Don Starling for a long time. That was over. Justice had been done. A life for a life…