“Thank you,” Mrs. St. John said stiffly. “I did not approve of Han’s actions in employing you, but you have been diligent, discreet, and efficient, and we are grateful.”
Solomon rose. “Let me show you out.”
“Might I have a brief, private word, Mrs. St. John?” Constance said as the widow began to rise.
A frown flickered on her brow, though she relaxed back into her chair.
“We’ll wait in the carriage, Mama,” Bella said.
The door clicked shut behind them, leaving Constance and Jacintha alone.
Jacintha’s gaze was haughty and just a little sardonic. “Woman to woman? If you mean to reassure me that my husband really was unknown in that house, there is no need. I never believed he was.”
“I know,” Constance said. “You never believed Zenobia Paul was his mistress either, did you?”
“No.”
“Because he was a good, loyal man and a faithful husband—at least in body.”
Jacintha’s eyes grew wintry. “Are you trying to imply something by that remark?”
“Yes,” Constance said frankly. “Look, the story we told stands up to scrutiny, satisfies the police and, more importantly, your family, but it isn’t the truth, is it? Not the whole truth.”
“My good woman—”
“I’m not a good woman,” Constance interrupted. “Or, at least, you might not regard me as such. But I do know about love. I know we can’t always choose it, or Solomon Grey would not have married me, nor I him. Nor didyouchoose, I suspect, to love Jason Madly, but I believe you did all the same. Your elopement was foiled by your family, and you were hurried into marriage with the first willing and suitable man.
“I suspect he knew you did not love him, and imagined that was all to the good, for he too loved someone he could never marry. He probably thought you could comfort each other. Or something equally idealistic and impossible.”
A short, bitter laugh issued from between Mrs. St. John’s lips, quickly suppressed. “Stop, please.”
“Not yet. Let me tell you what I think happened. Stop me wherever you like and tell me the truth. I think Terrence had always loved Gareth Neville—a shocking, even illegal love that could never come into the open. So they separated, and Terrence decided to marry you. You, on the verge of scandal, were willing enough to marry him. Being the man he was, I suspect there was no further intimacy between him and Neville, but somehow you found out about their affair. Perhaps you saw an old letter, or some kind friend poured poison into your ears.”
She said nothing, just sat rigid and white faced.
“He did his marital duty,” Constance proceeded. “Gave you two wonderful children, whom you both loved deeply.But it grew to be all you shared. You had your life of social engagements, he his own of academia, bohemia, music, philanthropy. I think he made every effort except the one you needed to make you happy.
“It was hard on you,” Constance allowed. “You married young and wanted his love. Who wants to waste their life, after all? But all you could do was keep him from his old affection. Neville had vanished for years. You hoped, perhaps, that he was forgotten, until you found out that Terrence was looking for him again.
“He did not appear to be successful, though, and then you were both distracted by Bella’s engagement. And the blackmail began.”
“I knew nothing about that,” Jacintha whispered. “I never dreamed it. How did she know?”
“Veronique? I’m not sure. But from the note in her journal, she had seen him in the past with a man she called anunnatural.”
Jacintha shuddered. “I knew he was worried about something. I had lived with the man for twenty years. That must have been when the blackmail started. And then his mood changed suddenly to wild happiness, and I knew, Iknewhe’d found Gareth Neville. I couldn’t sleep for worry, for this could not come out, not now, with Anthony going to university and Bella to be married…”
“So when you heard him leave the house at midnight, you followed him,” Constance suggested.
“I saw him go into the garden in the square. I wasn’t foolish enough to follow him in there, but I walked around and around and never saw him come out. Somehow, I had missed him, so I walked further around the nearby streets, hoping for a glimpse of him, but never finding him. And then, as I gave up and was finally coming home via the crescent mews, I heard his voice…”
This, surely, was the moment of truth. Constance tried not to hold her breath.
“It came from one of the back gardens off the mews,” Jacintha said, “and I only heard it for a moment. Then it stopped. I waited for him to come out, but again, he never did. I thought he must have gone into the house. I felt helpless. I could hardly wake the household and demand entrance. I didn’t even know why I had followed him in the first place. I think I imagined my very presence would have shamed him, turned him away from his unnatural…”
Jacintha shuddered. “I don’t know how long I waited there, huddled in the dark, waiting for him to come out. Somehow, I had to make him understand what he was doing to me, to our children. I could not allow him to disgrace us, for their sakes. And for mine. With Bella getting married, and Anthony beginning to make his own way in the world, the appearance of respectability was all I had. And he was risking it in such adisgustingway.”
Constance opened her mouth, then closed it again. She had to allow Jacintha to tell her truth. It was what she had asked for.
