Dorothea Hall Mysteries

Simply the Best

I gave Mr. Beckham my best approximation of one of my mother's looks and said, "Sir, I think you do know why she is upset. Surely it would be better to talk about it then simply let this farce of a wife auction go forward."

"I told Maggie and I'll tell you, if my wife can't trust my word, then why fight it?" he asked.

"When I came in, the look on your face made me think I was viewing a man who had on his marriage face. You're not happy with your wife wanting to leave you. Don't be stubborn."

Mr. Beckham stared hard at the back wall of the pub. He took another long drink of his ale. I hid my impatience by watching my husband charming the other men. He made a good partner in many ways. I couldn't imagine the two of us not being able to communicate about whatever we needed to, but we were just married. I would feel differently if I found Emory had an affair with another woman.

"Are you married, young woman?" he asked.

"Yes I am newly married. I am Mrs. Dorothea Hall." I realized I had neglected to introduce myself.

"I expect you are still in the honeymoon phase of things. Well, imagine you made a mistake almost twenty years ago, you thought your spouse forgave you, but you find they didn't. They still suspect your every move. At what point would you give up? I've reached my breaking point. I refuse to explain myself."

"Don't dynamite yourself, Mr. Beckham. Your wife is acting in fear, but you're reacting in anger. It is unfair for her to still hold a grudge for something you regret, but can't you understand her fear of you repeating a past wrong?"

I was frustrated. Mr. Beckham was obviously miserable and I supposed he didn't have a reason to share his pain with me, but he also refused to share with his daughter or his wife. He had just given up. I was sure he loved Mrs. Beckham, but he let his hurt feelings stop him from fighting for their love. That felt wrong to me.

"I may be newly married, but I'm sure that in 20 years or 50 I will fight my best to keep my love with Mr. Hall alive. You should be willing to do the same and not throw away all the good with the bad. If you can't explain things to your wife, explain it to me, and I will tell her."

Mr. Beckham sighed and signaled for a waiter. "This calls for a pot of tea."

As he sipped strong black tea, he began, "The affair that I had all those years ago resulted in a daughter. I believe my wife saw me visiting with Mary and jumped to the wrong conclusion."

"You never told your family about this?" I asked.

"I didn't know about Mary until her mother died. Miss Mina Patterson was a governess. We met when I delivered meat to her employer's kitchen. Mrs. Beckham and I had fallen out over a trivial issue and I found Mina very attractive and as it turns out, she wanted a child. She was forty to my twenty-one and she'd never had relations with a man. I thought she just wanted to have some fun, but she wanted her own child and used me for this purpose."