Welcome to Tuesday's Tales
This week I am in a different story which revolves around secrets and their consequences. In this scene Roderick discovers that his wife has known about his deepest secret for many years and never told him. Here he is asking her why she did what she did and what happened when she found out.
“Why didn’t you carry out your threat
and call the police?” Roderick caught hold of her finger that threatened to drill a
hole in his chest.
“I did, but when the fools recognised
him they backed off, so in order to mollify the neighbours I let him in.”
“That sounds like Ivor,” Laura sighed, bent down and pulled out a silver cigarette case. “Do you mind?” she asked the room in general and acknowledged her thanks when he handed her an ashtray. “I’m sorry, go on.”
“So you let him in, what did he want?”
Feigning the need to refill his glass, Roderick crossed the room, stood by the
window and watched the two women while stealthily opening the latch. He hated
the smell of cigarettes.
“To see your birth certificate.”
“My birth certificate?” her answer
came out of left field as far as Roderick was concerned. Why would his birth
certificate matter to Ivor Hazlewood? Unless the man was afraid his mistress
had named him as Roderick’s father.
“What did you do?”
He noted her recognition of his
choice of words. He knew his Celia and assumed his red-headed spitfire probably tried
to run the idiot out of her flat.
“I tripped,” she paused, sent an innocence look in
Laura's direction, saw the understanding and continued. “My coffee… I couldn’t keep hold of
it, and it spilled all over him.”
“Oh my.” Laura’s awed voiced dropped
into the gleeful silence. “I’ve wondered for years what happened that night.
The kids ran for the hills and didn’t visit again for over a week.” Her hand
came up to cover her mouth in an automatic gesture, but her eyes sparkled with
amusement.
