Captive Wife, The by Fiona Kidman Page A

‘You’ll never make a soldier at this rate,’ said the man, and for a moment Adie thought him about to weep. His heavy moustache needed a trim; it was curling over his still full upper lip, redder than that of most men. This is where Mathilde gets her rosy smile. Adie had a swift impure vision of his mouth pressing down on Emmeline’s throat which caused her to utter a small inarticulate squawk. She half rose to her feet as if choking on what she had just seen in her mind’s eye. If it had not been for that woman and her talk, this would not have occurred to her. But at that moment his proximity jolted her senses, so she almost felt the ripple of hair on his wrists, lying on the table beside her, could smell his rank breath, like hay that had been out too long, or digestion in need of a good cleanout. She could taste that smell, as if his tongue were in her mouth. She had closed her eyes, holding onto the edge of the table.
    â€˜The children,’ he had said, as she lowered herself back into the chair. ‘Are you finding them too much, Miss Malcolm?’
    â€˜No. Why ever would you think that, Lieutenant?’
    â€˜Mrs Bowman says they have spent a lot of time at her place just lately.’
    â€˜Oh really,’ she had cried out. ‘Mrs Bowman has asked Mathilde and Austen to call so often since they lost their mother, I thought she would be insulted if I did not allow them to join her children more often. She has told me they are good company for each other.’
    â€˜I beg your pardon, Ma’am,’ the lieutenant said, though with a touch of insolence.
    â€˜I am insulted,’ Adie had replied. ‘Yes, that is what I am.’ Of course, racing through her mind, was the conversation last week at the Governor’s dinner party. She might have known therewould be repercussions. She wondered, then, if she should talk to the lieutenant about what had happened, her random comments, her disappearance with Mr Barrett Marshall that others would have noted, and perhaps repeated. But a voice within told her that that would be reckless, might complicate matters still further. It had even been on the tip of her tongue to tell him about the visit of Betty Guard. And yet, she found she could not.
    â€˜Well, never mind,’ Roddick had said, as if their difference was already in the past. ‘Perhaps if you could keep them home for a day or so, it would be all to the good.’
    â€˜Really,’ Adie said, this time with a touch of steel in her own voice, ‘an arrangement has been made for today, and if I am to be in charge of the children, then I can’t simply cancel things at a few minutes’ notice. I will keep them home tomorrow.’
    â€˜That seems to be settled,’ he said. ‘The headaches are all right?’ he asked, apparently as an afterthought, and looked away, as a gentleman should when such matters are raised.
    A flush travelled from Adie’s collarbone and up her throat. For a moment, she felt betrayed by the late Emmeline. The headaches of her middle age are a secret she had shared with no one else. Besides, in the years since she has had the children to herself she has not had much time to think about the headaches and they have all but disappeared.
    She felt her mettle firming, even as her cheeks flamed. ‘I will speak with Mrs Bowman’s governess this afternoon about future arrangements for the children. I am sure they will be disappointed if they are not to see each other again.’
    Â 
    At five minutes past three on that Tuesday afternoon, the last one that Adie Malcolm will be free for some little while, there is a soft insistent rap at the door, and Betty Guard is back.

Chapter 11
    I have come dressed with care for I want to make a good impression on Miss Malcolm. My dress is navy blue, with ivory buttons fastening the front. I wear turquoise faïence beads around my neck, and my grandmother’s best brooch