A Woman Scorned by Suzanne Downes

Author:Suzanne Downes [Downes, Suzanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2018-06-18T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Stonier was astonished to see Meg pressing her own dress. To his certain knowledge she had not done a stroke of housework since young Ethel had joined them as a maid-of-all-work. He could not know that she was actually using the goffering iron to carefully straighten the dainty pin-pleats and lace details on her new gown and would no more allow Ethel to do the job than Stonier himself.

She was sweating a little with the effort, recalling that she had not used the implement herself since her first baby was born and she had been so proud of all the tiny, fragile bonnets and nightgowns, which had needed such careful pressing to keep them pristine. It hadn’t lasted long that first flush of enthusiasm. The bonnets had soon been put away and more practical garments brought out. Babies might look sweet and delicate, but the mess they made was astonishing, considering all they did was lie in a crib and eat and sleep, and the other things that didn’t bear thinking about.

“Going somewhere special, love?” he asked, taking his usual seat by the fire and picking up the newspaper.

Typical, thought Meg crossly, he can see I’m busy and Ethel is struggling to serve up the dinner, but he just sits with his paper!

“What makes you think that?” she responded tartly, “Can’t a woman look her best without there being a reason?”

He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t rise to the bait, “Course you can, love. I was just wondering, that’s all.”

He lifted the broadsheet in front of his face and Meg scowled at him, though he couldn’t see it. Any other man would be worried that his wife had a lover when she started to take such an interest in her appearance, but not Tom Stonier. He was too sure of her, that was the trouble. It would serve him right if she did find herself embroiled in an affair. She had been getting some second looks and saucy remarks from men as she did her rounds, talking to ladies in the Pump-rooms and tea rooms, telling them quietly about the miraculous alterations to her complexion wrought by Countess Kokic’s creams and salves. It did not occur to her that her sudden attraction to the opposite sex was not so much due to her face, but the newly-born self-confidence which was a direct result of her feeling better about herself.

She was fully aware, but not actually admitting it to herself, that she was feeling guilty for deceiving Tom and that was why she was out of sorts and taking it out on her poor, oblivious husband.

She almost touched the hot iron and nearly burned herself, which would have spoiled her now soft hands, and she snatched it away, swearing softly under her breath. She put the goffering iron away, thinking grumpily that the dress would just have to do, even if the lace wasn’t sitting quite flat.

By the time she had tidied away the old blanket which she had used

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