Ravens Gathering by Graeme Cumming

Tanya prompted.
    “Nothing to get excited about,” he said.  “And that’d
be half the problem.”  She caught a flash of teeth as he grinned
again.  “So don’t think I’ll be offended that you’re glad you’re not from
the village.  You need to get away from your roots and get a life.”
    “Is that what you did?”
    He hesitated, pondering the question.  “I don’t know. 
Maybe I’ll find out while I’m here.”  Another pause, then he reached out
and touched her arm.  It was a surprisingly gentle gesture.  “But you
were going to tell me about you.”
    The path had become an incline now.  It wasn’t steep,
but Tanya was beginning to feel the strain on her thighs.  For the first
time she could recall, it occurred to her that she was unfit.
    “What do you want to know?” she asked.
    “Let’s start with: ‘What’s a nice girl like you doing in a
place like this?’”
    She laughed, both at the question, and her immediate answer:
“Trying like hell to get out of it.”
    “I can understand that.  But why come in the first
place?”
    “It was Ian’s idea.  He needed something different to
do, and this seemed like a good opportunity.”
    “Something different?  Why?”
    “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of something called the
Financial Services Act?”
    “I’ve been out of the country,” he reminded her.
    “It wouldn’t matter.  Most people who’ve been in the
country haven’t heard of it.  The Government decided, in their infinite
wisdom, to regulate the financial services industry.  That was a few years
ago now, so we got some warning.  The regulation itself only came into
being last year.”
    “Regulation’s not a bad thing, is it?”
    She sighed.  It was an old debate that she’d had with
Ian too many times over the last few years.  “I don’t think so.  But
he’s been worried about it.”
    “Why?  Has he got something to hide?”
    “Ian?”  She snorted at the idea.  “God, no! 
He’s as straight as a die.  He’s driven, of course.  That’s why he’s
been so successful over the years.  But he’s not the sort of person who’ll
flog anything to a punter just to make some money.”
    “So what was he worried about?”
    “In all honesty, he’s never said specifically.  I mean,
he’s convinced it’s the thin end of the wedge.  He reckons they’ll make it
compulsory to take exams before long.  I think that’s a concern. 
He’s fifty-three now.”  She watched for a reaction, but it was difficult
to tell in the half-light.  “So I suspect he’s uncomfortable with having
to sit exams at that stage in his life.  I did tell him that I could do
that, if we needed it.”
    “You worked in the same business, then?”
    “That’s how we met.  I was a rep for an insurance
company.  I used to call on advisers and try to persuade them to use our
products.”
    “I doubt you had any problems doing that.”  She was
surprised to feel heat in her cheeks.  His comment had hit home, and she
suddenly felt embarrassed at the memory of the things she had done to get the
business.  Which was strange, because it had never embarrassed her
before.  “So you called on Ian?” he prompted.
    Still flustered, she took a moment to regain her
thoughts.  “Yes,” she said at last.  “And after we married I went to
work with him.”
    “That’s difficult,” he remarked.  “Working together and
living together.”
    You don’t know the half of it.  She hadn’t
thought that one through at the time.  It seemed like a good idea to allow
her to keep a close eye on Ian’s finances.  But it also meant she was
under his watchful eyes more than she’d expected.  Married or not, she’d
never intended to become a one-man woman.
    “It can be difficult,” she agreed.  “But we made it
work.”
    “And then he decided he didn’t want to carry on,” Martin
reminded.  “But you don’t know why.”
    “Not for sure.  I just think that, after doing