The Madman's Room

‘I understand,’ he said out loud, being careful to avoid any trace of irony.

Paula pulled a face to show she didn’t agree with her husband.

‘I understand,’ she repeated, ‘in one sense. But on the other hand it doesn’t strike me as a very honest way to act. What I mean is that kind of situation leads to complications. But why….’

Paula bit her tongue as she realised the indiscretion of her question.

‘Why did we separate in the first place?’

‘Well, yes,’ stammered Paula, as Francis gave her a furious glare.

Bessie took a deep breath. There was an intense gleam in her blue eyes which neither Paula nor Francis could interpret.

‘Mike,’ she murmured with a bitter smile. ‘We got on pretty well together at the start. And then things began to change little by little… insignificant details. It’s hard to explain. There comes a day when you sense things are going in the wrong direction. You dismiss the thought from your mind and then it comes back even stronger. Finally you’re sure you made a mistake. The day I expressed my feelings to Mike, he didn’t want to accept what I was saying, blaming it on the grim dark days of winter, notoriously bad for lovers. Then he claimed that without ups and downs life would be boring… and a host of other excuses.’

‘So it was you,’ exclaimed Paula, while Francis made a show of clearing his throat noisily. ‘It was you who….’

‘Yes,’ replied Bessie, smiling at her friend’s ingenuousness. ‘Yes, I was the one who broke it up. That’s why I’m in no position to reproach Mike about anything. And besides….’

‘Yes?’ asked Paula, leaning eagerly forward.

Bessie sat back in her deckchair, let out a hearty laugh, and said:

‘I think I’ve said enough for today. Would you like some more tea?’

Once everyone was served, Paula returned to the attack.

‘I get the impression you’re hiding something….’

‘Darling, please!’ protested Francis, spilling some of his tea.

‘I get the impression,’ insisted Paula, ‘that there’s a new Prince Charming in the picture.’

Francis was about to protest some more, but stopped when he saw Bessie wink.

‘Another fiancé?’ he murmured.

‘Bessie, you must tell us everything!’ insisted Paula. ‘What does he do? Where’s he from? How did you meet him?’

Bessie blushed, confused yet at the same time flattered by her friends’ interest. She looked briefly up at the sky with a beatific smile on her lips.

‘I met him in London, several months ago. You’ll never guess how… No, I really mustn’t say.’

‘Ah, no!’ cried Paula excitedly. ‘You’ve gone too far to stop now.’

‘Well, if you insist. We met in a rather unusual way… in fact he stopped me quite unexpectedly in the street.’

Francis suppressed an indignant “what!” telling himself that provincial girls made easy prey.

‘In the street?’ repeated Paula with a shocked expression.

‘Yes,’ confirmed Bessie, ‘but in a rather extraordinary manner. I was strolling along Oxford Street when I saw a young man whom I didn’t know from Adam coming towards me, brandishing a sumptuous bouquet of roses. He stopped in front of me and announced they were for me, that he didn’t know why, that he was very embarrassed by what he was doing, that he regretted it, but that he also didn’t regret it.’

While Paula was uttering the obligatory “how romantic,” Francis suppressed a shrug of the shoulders. The naiveté of some women flabbergasted him.

‘I was so taken aback,’ continued Bessie, pressing her hands to her chest, ‘that I accepted his invitation to have a cup of tea. And there you are. Since then, we’ve been seeing each other almost every week.’

‘Here?’ asked Paula in surprise.

‘No, in London. But now Mike and Sarah….’

‘So, will we soon get to meet him?’ asked Paula, with an enthusiasm which elicited a disapproving frown from her husband.

‘Not right away. He’s actually quite swamped with work at the moment. But he’s promised to spend a few days here before the end of the year.’

Paula tried to find out more, but in the end she and her husband went back to Hatton Manor none the wiser.

12

The evening meal over, Sarah, Paula and Francis decided to go outside for some air. The setting sun threw long shadows over the park.

‘A fiancé? Well, she finished consoling herself pretty quickly.’

‘You don’t understand, Sarah,’ said Francis. ‘Why would she need to console herself when it was she who broke off the engagement?’

Sarah gave a tinkling laugh.

‘And you believe it was Bessie who jilted Mike? What a joke!’

‘But no,’ insisted Paula. ‘She told us herself.’

‘And because she told you, you believe it?’ railed Sarah, turning to her brother and sister-in-law with an ironic, almost disdainful smile. ‘As far as psychology is concerned, you both have a lot to learn. And as regards Mike, you have the wrong version of the story. When he told her that it would be better if they separated, she clung to him, moaning and threatened suicide. Mike was very patient because he wanted to avoid a scandal at any price.’

Francis nodded thoughtfully.

‘That’s funny,’ he said. ‘She didn’t give me the impression she was at all jealous.’