Nights of Villjamur - Mark Charan Newton [72]
Tuya continued to point out and describe things, but his mind began drifting to his own past again.
“Rumex, you’re not listening, are you? How’re you ever going to win a woman’s favor if you don’t pay attention while she’s talking?”
“I always did when she was around,” he said, a little annoyed. What business was it of Tuya’s anyway? Did she get her kicks from sifting through other people’s lives? “Well maybe I wasn’t a very good partner.”
“But you could be,” she said.
“And you could tell me how?”
“So long as you don’t mind talking about such intimate things with a murder suspect.”
The pressures of his personal life were beginning to distract him from his job for the Inquisition. Yet above all he needed to sort out his private life. It felt uncomfortable to be here with her, but every minute he spent with her, he might be able to observe her closely, find out who this secretive woman was, and, more importantly, to probe her further about her involvement with Ghuda. “No, it’s fine. Just don’t take it personally if I’m obliged to arrest you later,” he said, and raised a questioning eyebrow.
She seemed to like that. “Of course. Besides, because I spend a lot of time alone, I could do with the company. In my time, I’ve listened to a lot of men talk—and let me tell you, men do talk, if only to the right woman. You know my profession, so I get to peek into a lot of lives, see a lot of destruction—the amount of hidden secrets and lies that keep a partnership intact …” She looked intently at a small metal clock and picked it up. “And, besides, I’m just making my living doing something I enjoy. If they didn’t come to me for their kicks, they’d only go elsewhere. I’m not the problem—just a symptom.”
“No one suggested you were a problem,” Jeryd observed bashfully.
She put the clock down, tucked a loose strand of red hair behind her ear. “Anyway, what I’m saying is I know quite a bit about relationships.” She laughed to herself, some hidden irony perhaps. “Yet I myself have never held one together. But, I’d like to think I could help you. And your partner obviously had good tastes.” She gazed at Jeryd intensely.
He looked away awkwardly.
“Relax, investigator,” she said, laughing. “I meant she liked quality antiques.”
“I know that,” Jeryd said, defensively.
“You shouldn’t take things so seriously. You’re so full of melancholy. I think you work too hard. What would you do if you didn’t work?”
Jeryd frowned. “I’m not sure really.”
“It’s scary for some people to think what they’d do if they didn’t have to work constantly. I think that’s why many do work so much: because they’re frightened of stopping.”
“What’s all this got to do with helping me get Marysa back?”
“Because you’ve probably put your work ahead of her most of the time when she needed care and attention. You didn’t listen to her enough. You didn’t make her feel special. You therefore never earned the right to be loved. I dare say you worked so hard because you didn’t feel comfortable loving her.”
“Compliments corner, this,” Jeryd muttered dryly.
“It’s a reality check,” she said. “I can tell by your face that I’ve hit a nerve.”
“Maybe you have. Look, I’m meeting her tonight. What could I do to … seduce her?”
She proceeded to give him some advice at length.
It was as if the secrets of womankind were being revealed to him.
He even had to make notes.
“So,” he said, after being numbed into silence by her advice, “what should I get Marysa as a present?”
“A good-quality antique, one that could also be thought of as a relic. It’ll arouse her curiosity, will mystify her, play on her mind. You must be on her mind always.”
“Of course.