Wife Errant by Joan Smith Page B

have thought of that yourself. I am surprised he hit on you, for in the usual way, he never tampers with girls from good families.”
    “I wonder if he thinks our family is not quite the thing, now that you and Papa are getting divorced,”Tess suggested slyly.
    “What has that to do with anything?”
    “You said Dulcie cannot be presented if you are divorced, so obviously it does make a difference, Mama.”
    Mrs. Marchant flinched at this touch of the serpent’s tooth. She was worldly enough to realize the danger to her daughters in the pending divorce. “In any case, I let Revel know he is not to carry on in this way in future. If he comes sniffing around again, we will assume he is serious. I mean that he plans to marry you,”she added, to make her meaning perfectly clear. “And if he does not, then you must not see him.”
    “How was your evening, Mama?”Tess asked. She hoped to hear that Lord James had given her her congé .
    “Wretched. I lost two guineas, and the supper they served was inedible. Cold meat and bread. I told James I would not care to visit the place with him again. We are going to a play tomorrow night.”
    Tess wished to discover whether this was one of the appointments that had been made before Revel spoke to his cousin. “I think you mentioned the play before?”she said.
    “Very likely. James has subscription tickets, so he feels he must go to get his money’s worth. I would much rather go to a rout.”
    This did not quite answer Tess’s question. “Where else do you and James plan to go?”she asked.
    “Good gracious, it is a romance, not a military campaign. We don’t have the whole season planned in advance.”Not a word was said about breaking the affair off. Her next speech was, “I don’t suppose you saw your papa at the assembly?”
    “No, he could not take Esmée there.”
    “I should hope not, but she is so brazen she would go to Court with a married man. If Bath takes us for fallen women, Tess, you must not blame me. It is all in your father’s dish.”
    “Society has always granted men more freedom in that respect. It is only when a lady carries on that the family’s reputation sinks.”
    “Don’t talk nonsense, child. There is scarcely a married lady in London who goes anywhere with her husband. It is very poor ton to do so. The mischief in our situation is that your papa left home. If he at least resided under the same roof, nothing would be thought of it.”
    “You are the one who put him out, Mama.”
    “This time he went too far,”Mrs. Marchant said grimly, but there were tears glittering in her eyes, and more grief than anger on her pinched face. “He ought not to have done it in Bath.”
    “Bath is more strict than most cities,”Tess agreed.
    “Strict? What do I care for strict? It was in Bath that he met and courted me, Tess. We were married at home and came back here for our honeymoon. Lyle never carried on with lightskirts in Bath before. It is like flirting in church. I could not forgive that. I am only kept in my skin by the hope that he will come back and beg my forgiveness.”
    Her control flew to the winds, and she dissolved in a bout of tears. Tess felt sorry for her mother, and guilty for adding to her troubles. Mama couldn’t help being a peagoose. She had put up with a good deal from her husband. If Mama loved him less, this never would have happened. She would have turned her head the other way and gone on pretending not to know, or to mind. It was the fate of ladies who married men like Papa, or Lord Revel.
    Both ladies took their confusion and troubles to bed with them. Mrs. Marchant now had to worry that her little fling with James was jeopardizing her daughters’reputations. She was bored to flinders with James. Her jaws ached from trying to swallow her yawns after an evening with him.
    They only went to hole-in-the-wall places, which was her fault. If James were seeing an unattached lady, they would be welcome anywhere.
    She