Free The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell

how she could have seen Guy as a suitable husband for her sister. For one thing, he was five years her junior and, since herhusband’s death, Beatrix had looked older than her age. Perhaps Pamela, only just over thirty at the time, had had her eye on him herself, Ismay had wondered, and considered he would be safe with Beatrix.
    If that were so she couldn’t have been more wrong. That first date led to another and another, and very soon Guy and Beatrix were a couple, an item. And Ismay developed a ‘crush’ on him. She kept it dark; she was ashamed of it. He was her mother’s and Ismay, young as she was, understood that her mother needed Guy, even deserved Guy, after the years of nursing their father and her long-drawn-out suffering after his death. Besides, she was only thirteen, a child in appearance. That was how Guy must see her, as a child. Heather, on the other hand, eleven years old, was already beginning to look like a woman. But she was childlike, innocent, even naïve, Ismay thought. At school Heather worked hard. She worked earnestly, her eyes too close to the book she was reading, her handwriting slow, deliberate and round. Far more than she and her mother did, Heather talked about their dead father. ‘Daddy’ might not be still alive but he was present with Heather, a rock to lean on, male perfection and the role model she would look for in the men in her own life.
    â€˜Why did Daddy have to die?’ was a question she still occasionally asked. She didn’t expect an answer. She knew there wasn’t one.
    For weeks she wouldn’t speak to Guy. To do him justice – and Ismay was very willing to do him justice – he tried doing what he called ‘drawing her out’. He wasn’t stupid. He didn’t bring her presents or call her darling, as he soon did call Beatrix and Ismay, he didn’t ask her how she was getting on at school or ask her anything except her opinion, come to that. She was almost twelve but he talked to her as if she were ten years older,making it his business to find out what things she liked doing at school and after school, and trying to discuss these subjects with her. ‘Trying’ was the word, Ismay thought. He never succeeded. Heather was learning Spanish and Ismay remembered – with pain now and a kind of fear – how Guy had talked to Heather about Spain and its history and language and the perils of the Spanish subjunctive, about tennis and Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras and about cooking, which she was already good at. Heather didn’t ignore him. She answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ or an ‘I don’t know’.
    Ismay remembered the first time he had kissed her. He and her mother were engaged by then and due to be married a month later. When they got engaged Ismay expected Guy to move in. Every couple she knew or came across who were engaged, lived together. But Guy went on going out with Beatrix and bringing her home, and half an hour later kissing her goodnight. One evening he kissed Ismay too. She knew very well from films and television how men kissed women they were in love with and Guy’s kiss wasn’t like that. The way he kissed her mother wasn’t like that either.
    Ismay asked Heather why she thought he wanted to marry Beatrix. He didn’t act as if he wanted to marry her. He just said he did and went along with all the arrangements.
    â€˜I expect he wants a house to live in,’ said twelve-year-old Heather.
    â€˜Oh, grow up,’ said Ismay. ‘You are such a baby. Men don’t marry women for a house to live in. He’s got a flat. Pam said he earns good money. I heard her say that to Mum when he first came here.’
    â€˜Our house is nice and big. It’s worth a lot. His flat is quite small with just one bedroom. I heard him say so.I expect he’s got a big mortgage. You don’t even know what a mortgage is, do you?’
    â€˜Of