The Guilty Wife by Sally Wentworth

helped them. They were been kind enough, but she was kept in custody and didn't see Rick again until the trial. He knew there was no hope for him after she gave her testimony, but she never forgot the venom in his eyes as he looked at her. So then he did his best to implicate her, saying that she'd always known about the gun, that she'd helped him on lots of burglaries. Lucie protested her innocence but the jury believed him, and maybe the judge was having a bad day, because he sent her to prison too, for three years. Rick laughed at that, kept on laughing as they took him away to the cells.
    The solicitor she'd been given wanted Lucie to! appeal against the sentence, but she was so completely intimidated by what had happened to her, was so overcome by misery that she did nothing. She withdrew yet deeper into herself, lived in a kind of stupor, doing what she was told, just going around like a zombie. But then Kate Brownlow was appointed as her prison visitor and gradually everything changed for the better and led to her meeting Seton.
    But Aunt Kate had been right, Lucie thought; the older woman had tried hard to persuade her to tell Seton of her past, but Lucie had been so afraid that it would spoil things, had been so intimidated by his background and his job, that she hadn't listened, instead had begged Kate to keep her secret, made her promise never to tell. Should she confess everything to Seton now? Lucie wondered fretfully. She didn't want to. He had always thought that there was complete openness between them. What would he think when he knew that she had deceived him like this? But he loved her, and surely he would understand?
    She tossed anxiously in the bed, wondering what to do, afraid of losing the perfect happiness they shared. One moment she decided that she would tell him, the next that she couldn't possibly. Her mind filled with apprehension when she thought how appalled Seton would be that he, a barrister, had a wife who had been to prison, that his son had an ex-convict for a mother. No matter that she had been innocent of any crime, that stain was on her record and always would be.
    Lucie realised she'd been living in a fool's paradise—but had anything really changed? she thought, more hopefully. OK, Rick was out of prison, but why should that make any difference to her? They might still go on as they had always done, and then she would have told Seton for no reason at all. She didn't know what to do and thumped the pillows in angry indecision. But she remembered her aunt telling her it was always best to be completely honest, and she had almost made up her mind that she must tell him when he finally came home at last. She was still lying awake in the darkness, dreading having to tell him, and trying from somewhere to find the courage.
    'Are you asleep?' he murmured. Lucie didn't answer but he knew she wasn't. He undressed, slipped into bed and reached for her.
    She opened her mouth to speak, to tell him everything, but then sensed a feeling of excitement in him. 'What is it?'
    'My meeting tonight—it was at the local political party headquarters. The sitting MP wants to retire before the next election so they have to choose a candidate to replace him. They decided they want a local man. They asked me if I would be interested.'
    Lucie sat up with a jerk and switched on the light. She had been right; there was a blaze of excitement in Seton's eyes.
    'What did you say?' she asked hollowly.
    "That I would have to think about it, discuss it with you.'
    'But you want to do it.' It wasn't a question.
    There was no hesitation in his voice as Seton said, 'Yes. It would be a beginning, Lucie. And who knows what it might lead to? Think of the challenge. Think how exciting life could be.'
    She groped at straws. 'You might not get elected.'
    'I might not even get picked as the candidate.' He took her hand. 'I'd like to take a shot at it. But it's entirely up to you. If you hate the idea I'll forget it, of course.