Widow in White

Chapter Six: From Suspicion to Conclusion

Once Laura was gone, Neil put his quill down and leaned thoughtfully back in his chair with his hands behind his head.

Then Laura had been unfaithful to Maidstone. Neil had wondered about it. He knew that gossip had a way of running away with the truth, and he hadn't really believed the rumours, until now.

It wasn't really that, however, which disturbed him. It was the cold, cruel way she had dismissed Percival — that, he thought, was the Laura he knew. That, he thought, was the woman Richard had married.

His heart sank. As much as he distrusted Laura, part of him had been relieved to find that Richard seemed happy with her. But no woman who had seduced a man in order to get revenge on her husband could ever make a good wife. No woman who then confessed to it, in that hateful, almost gleeful tone.

What to do now?

Neil hesitated at the thought of telling Richard what he had heard. For one thing, Richard would hate Neil for doing so. But more importantly, it would cast a shadow over Richard's happiness, perhaps even destroy his marriage. And what did he have to say anyway? That Laura had been unfaithful to another man — a man who had treated her ill?

Would she be unfaithful to Richard?

He considered it slowly and carefully. To Richard, she was affectionate, attentive, and gentle. There was no pretence in her behaviour either, no attempt to charm. She was fond of Richard, perhaps even loved him.

But would that keep him safe?

For an hour or more, Neil lingered in the front room thinking about it. Ideas came and went; the idea of talking to Laura about it, however, never occurred to him. In the end, he decided there was only one thing to do: keep his eyes open, and his mouth shut.

For the rest of the day, he remained in the house, but Laura had no more callers and stayed in her room until early evening. When she came down, she was already dressed for dinner and the ball they were going to afterwards, in an ill-fitting dark blue gown that made her look rather wan.

"Is Richard not back?" she asked.

"Not yet," Neil said.

She passed the time with him then, picking away at a song on the piano and looking at the clock every five minutes. At eight, they went down to dinner alone. She said that Richard wasn't normally late and Neil said he expected he would be here soon. He was not, and Laura spent most of the meal fiddling with her fork or looking anxiously at the clock. As they started dessert, a footman came with a note saying that Richard was delayed and would meet them at Lady Roynor's ball later that night. Laura's face fell.

"Something wrong?" Neil asked quietly.

"I don't feel like going to the ball," was all Laura said.

"You don't have to go."

She shook her head. "It's important for Richard to be on her good side."

It was a long drive out to Lady Roynor's mansion in Wimbledon, and Laura was silent the entire way. Neil watched her from his side of the coach and tried to puzzle it out. If he said nothing about what he had learned today, Richard might be unguarded against hurt in the future. On the other hand, if he told Richard, he might destroy Richard's present happiness. There was no safe choice.

When they arrived, the ball was already in full swing. They were greeted by Lady Roynor, who told them that Richard had not yet arrived. They went to the salon, where Neil got Laura a glass of champagne, which she fiddled with rather than drank. After a few minutes, the current dance ended, and a fat and bumbling Lord Somebody came up and asked Laura for the next. She winced but agreed, pressing her untouched glass of champagne into Neil's hand as she left. He drank it as he watched the dance.