Absolute Truths by Susan Howatch

Author:Susan Howatch [Howatch, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780517170779
Published: 2011-09-15T03:29:59+00:00

II

Sheila was one of those women who always look exactly right for every social occasion and always look exactly right in the most tastefully unobtrusive way. She was of average height and still managing, I noted, to repel the advances of the dreaded ‘middle-aged spread’. Indeed she looked thinner than when I had last seen her at her husband’s funeral eighteen months ago. I was unsure how old she was, but I had been some years Derek’s senior and I thought it probable that his wife had been some years his junior. That made her about fifty. She had dark hair flecked with silver, dark eyes and a good skin, pale and smooth. Although not pretty she was undeniably pleasant to look at because nothing was permitted to jar the eye. She was wearing a dark skirt with a beige twinset. Her nylons were just the right shade of brown. The heels of her shoes were neither too low nor too high. She wore no jewellery, only her wedding ring. Even though she had not been expecting a visitor she still contrived to be faultlessly presentable.

Meanwhile as I absorbed all these soothing details I was making a series of somewhat disconnected comments to explain my arrival on the scene and she was murmuring exactly the right courteous phrases in reply.

.. up in London unexpectedly ... lunch with an old friend ... fancied a walk afterwards before driving home ... do forgive me for not telephoning first ... if this is in any way inconvenient –’

‘No, not at all. What a pleasant surprise!’ said Sheila agreeably, leading us out of the cramped hall into a room arranged with such care that the furniture seemed to occupy the floor-space in a pattern geometric in its precision. Yet the effect was not unpleasing. The atmosphere of rigorous order, tempered by the soft colours of the upholstery and curtains and by the polished wood of the antique bookcases, was both restful and satisfying. On the far side of the room at the back of the house French windows opened on to a small courtyard where ivy rambled over white walls and plants in tubs awaited the arrival of summer. There was a light on outside to illuminate this attractive sight, but as we entered the room Sheila flicked off the switch and pulled the curtains. The wireless, which I had heard on my arrival, had already been silenced.

‘What a charming room!’ I said, feeling the need to break the brief pause and glad that I could be sincere.

‘Thank you – yes, I’m fond of it. Pimlico’s a patchy area, but there are some pleasant nooks and crannies ... Do sit down, Charles. Would you like some tea?’

I said I would.

‘And do go ahead and smoke,’ said Sheila, noting the absence of my uniform. ‘I see you won’t have to remove your clerical collar! I’ll just get an ashtray.’

I was impressed that she had remembered this foible, but the ideal episcopal wife remembers every eccentricity about the people whom she may one day be obliged to entertain.

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