Read Online 03 - Murder in Mink by Evelyn James - Free Book Online Page A

that
tend to catch up on people. Had he really thought he could get away with having
two wives? Surely he realised once it was in the papers there was a high chance
his first wife would see it? Or had he made arrangements with her, expecting
her to keep her distance and she had reneged? That was always possible. In any
case the matter had to be resolved and that left two options; return to his
first wife or petition for a divorce. Option one was liable to be difficult.
Andrew had left his wife and Clara was of the opinion that if a man abandoned
his spouse, press-ganging him into coming back was not going to result in
marital bliss. Perhaps, Clara told herself, that was blatant cynicism. But she
knew of few cases of people being forced into doing something they didn’t want
to, where they ended up liking the situation. It went against human nature.
Force a person and they had a natural instinct to revolt.
    That didn’t mean she was softening to Andrew’s plight. He
had been a cad. Whatever her thoughts on the woman in red, Andrew had married
her, taken sacred vows and then run off. Supposing, just supposing, there had
been a real reason. Perhaps the woman had gone first, or he had thought her
dead, then that might just excuse his actions. Yet even so he should have
checked before his second marriage and assured himself he could legally wed
Laura. Imagine if they had had children and then it had all come out! Any
offspring would be illegitimate and Laura would have been doubly disgraced! It
was all so horrid a thought.
    Well, if Laura could forgive him, and as Peg had said
that would take some doing, that left only one option – a divorce. Which was
messy, public and controversial. They would not be able to wed in a church for
a start, and there was a dreadful stigma attached to divorcees, more so women
than men, but still…
    Laura would need to be prepared for scandal. It would be
a real test of her love for Andrew, if not her endurance, and that was assuming
her father was prepared to have his daughter marry a divorced man. Very
complicated.
    Clara rolled over on her side and watched the hands of
her wristwatch ticking round slowly in a shaft of moonlight. Pity Andrew wasn’t
a widower, that would have made things so much simpler. Widowers were allowed
leeway, they were pitied not derided. They were victims, not sinners. Perhaps
Andrew had convinced himself the woman was dead and that it was fine to marry
Laura. If he had he had been extremely foolish. What a mess this all was!
    Clara yawned and snuggled down in her pillow. Sleep came
smoothly on despite her over-indulgence on sugar.
    She was woken at quarter to one by the cold draught
coming in the window. She roused from her bed, freezing, and went to shut it. A
car roared throatily somewhere in the distance as she dropped the sash and it
made her wonder if Andrew was home yet. Had he really gone to look over his
car, or had he paid a call on his wife?
    Clara dropped back on the bed and drew up the blankets,
aware she was suddenly wide awake again. She had been dreaming of the wedding
vividly, the woman in red had been as clear as a photograph down to her hat and
shoes. The more Clara thought of her, the more she sensed the wrongness of it
all.
    The woman had been wearing a dress in the latest style,
dyed scarlet but there had been a hint of faded charm about the outfit. It was
possibly homemade from a pattern book. There had been something about it that
implied it was trying to mask an otherwise impoverished lifestyle. Her shoes! Yes
her shoes had been old, but recently polished. When she walked they were badly
scuffed on the soles and she had not worn stockings. That had not registered at
the time, but now it struck Clara for stockings were such an essential of life,
yet they could also be expensive.
    She had had no jewels, except a half-hidden string of
pearls, only they could easily have been costume jewellery from Woolworths, at
a distance it was hard to tell.