Accompanied by His Wife by Mary Burchell

Author:Mary Burchell
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER VII

‘Come back?—Pat? It’s impossible. Do you mean she is here in the house?’

‘No, no, of course not.’ His misery and anxiety made him impatient. ‘She has written to me.’

‘Here?’

‘No. The letter arrived at the office by the afternoon post.’

‘But does she know the address of this house?’ Patricia said mechanically, with a vague idea of Pat arriving in person at any moment, and upsetting every plan they had ever made.

‘Of course.’

‘Why didn’t she come here, then?’

‘I don’t know.’ He began to walk up and down the room. ‘She seems to have had some idea of preparing me. In any case, I suppose she felt she couldn’t come here until she knew just—just what had happened.’

‘Was there an address on the letter?’

‘Yes. A hotel in town. I went there at once, of course, but she was not in. All I could get out of them at the desk was that she had gone into the country for a few days but would be back on Saturday.’

‘What an extraordinary way to behave,’ muttered Patricia. Then, remembering that he always resented criticism of his wife, she added, ‘But what is the idea, Michael? If she wants to come back to you, why doesn’t she—well, come? Why write cryptic letters and then disappear into the country.’

‘I don’t know, I tell you.’

Patricia looked at ‘his unhappy face, and then said bluntly:

‘Are you going to tell me what was in the letter, or don’t you consider it my business?’

He sat down on the edge of his desk, his hands thrust into his pockets.

‘I don’t mind telling you. It simply says that—that she knows she made a ghastly mistake, and that she wants me to forgive her and take her back. She wants me to—to think it over very carefully. That’s why she didn’t give me the opportunity of saying a peremptory “no” which I might have regretted later. I suppose that was the idea behind this going into the country, somewhere where I couldn’t reach her. She says in the letter, just as they told me at the hotel, that she will be back at the week-end. That’s all.’

‘Did she,’ inquired Patricia, with a dryness she could not disguise, ‘did she mention that she was sorry for what she had done?’

He smiled faintly.

‘She’s not very good at expressing these things, Patricia. But—yes, she is sorry.’

‘And you are going to forgive her and take her back, of course?’

There was a moment’s hesitation. Then he said, without expression:

‘Of course.’

She looked at him in a troubled way.

‘Michael, it doesn’t seem much like a happy ending, somehow, does it?’

‘I don’t imagine there is ever anything much like a happy ending when these things have happened.’

‘You mean—it’s spoilt anyway.’

‘Don’t let’s discuss it, Patricia. The point is—what are we going to do about the various complications here?’

‘Oh, heavens, yes! I’d almost forgotten those.’ Then, after a long pause—‘Michael, I think we’re going to have to tell your mother the whole story. In any case, I saw Phil this afternoon, and—’

‘Impossible,’ he said impatiently.

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