Dorothea Hall Mysteries

Tired Father

Mr. Beckham sounded tired as he told me this, a bone deep exhaustion which came from loving a woman who had lost trust in him. I wanted to help them. I had been lucky enough to have parents who loved each other and never strayed. I felt this man's passion for his wife in his sad eyes.

"You didn't try to explain?" I asked.

He gripped his mug so hard his knuckles went white. "You try to get a word in edgewise with a woman yelling about being sold in the next wife auction. She won't listen to a word I say, just stops her ears and sings a little song to herself."

"What does young Mary say about all this?"

"Despite the mother who raised her, she's gentle and kind. She feels horrible about causing this strife between me and my wife. I had to reassure her about it not being her fault. She didn't know what her mother had done besides having a child out of wedlock. She assumed I never wanted to see her."

And yet she had gone straight to him when her mother died. Mr. Beckham seemed very innocent in the ways of women. It was understandable to want to know your father, but if you thought he refused to have anything to do with you, would you approach him so easily?

"Did she send you a letter explaining things or just approach you out of the blue?" I asked.

"She sent a note asking to meet with me, saying she was Mina Patterson's daughter and that she had some questions about our relationship." Mr. Beckham gulped down the rest of his tea. "I agreed to meet even though I worried what my wife would think if she found out about it."

"How can you be sure this Mary is your daughter?"

His cheeks went red. "She could be the twin of our Maggie who takes after my side of the family. I'm sure she is my child."

"Has she said what she expects from you?"

"She doesn't want any money or anything like that. She just wants to get to know her father."

My next step had to be speaking with Miss Mary Patterson. If she was an innocent young lady, maybe her speaking with Mrs. Beckham would help. If she was a mercenary lady, I wanted to keep her as far away from the Beckham family as possible. I might write to Carmella and ask if I could borrow some money to send the woman on her way. For Mr. Beckham's sake I hoped Mary was the kind of girl she seemed to be to him.

"I want to meet your daughter. Can you arrange it?" I asked.

"You could come with me tomorrow night. She's a musician and she sent me a ticket to her concert," he said.

He gave me the details of the event and we agreed to meet outside the hall an hour before the concert. I decided I would bring Maggie Beckham with me. We would see how Mary reacted to her "twin" sister.