Behind Closed Doors

Chapter Ten

In his family, Henry knew that there was no decaying memory, and everything that had been done, every syllable spoken, were living specters that were hidden from view in the minds of those involved. A web of lies had been spun by his parents about their life together, and so he decided to spin his own history, to make his own music; he hid his homosexuality. Behind the flash of a dazzling smile, behind the well-toned muscular body he possessed, he hid the dark secret of his confusing sexuality. And then he went down and got himself married to the girl he had chosen. Their wedding was a quiet affair, attended only by the immediate family members.

Henry had an intimate knowledge of Family Law, and he knew that if he was to make the marriage one under the Act, then should there ever be a divorce between him and Fiona, then he would be forced to maintain her, and it would be ridiculously expensive, gobbling up a lot of his inheritance. He was ashamed of himself for thinking that but he could not help it, and he hoped that it wouldn’t come to that. But still, if shit the fan, he needed to have some leverage, some way to leave without too much blood on his shirt.

For now, he had to forget about that dancer, but it was difficult, as after he’d become an item with Fiona and he wanted to have her, she showed her inexperience. Her sweet, innocent responses to him was different from the feral pitch that Phoenix had driven him to when they’d had each other in that room that smelled of cheap perfume and sex and the heady smell of the dancer himself. To him she could hold no flame to the male lover he’d touched, to what Phoenix had given him, the heady delights the dancer had introduced him to.