Free Dear Laura by Jean Stubbs

together.’
    ‘Be silent!’ he said furiously. ‘I will not be questioned in this manner. I have told you this is private business. I have rivals, you know. I have – enemies, even. I employ – certain people – people you would not receive – to watch over certain aspects of my business. So that you can dress as you do, among other things,’ and he gestured at the fine lace blouse and black tailored skirt, at the great cameo pinned to her high collar. ‘My duties towards you, Mrs Crozier, are fulfilled. I beg you to remember your duty towards me. Obedience was one of your vows, if you recollect.’
    She was weeping, beside herself. He watched her, angry and puzzled.
    ‘Then open it, in God’s name,’ she begged, reaching for thehandkerchief tucked at her waist. ‘Open it while I am here, and show me that I am wrong.’
    His fingers lingered over the package and withdrew. His expression hardened.
    ‘You forget yourself, madam. I do not have to prove my honour. It is absolute. Now please to go.’
    She stared at him over the handkerchief.
    ‘You do not care what I suspect?’ she asked, astonished.
    ‘You are not yourself, Laura. I suggest that you lie down for an hour with the blinds drawn, and come to your senses.’
    ‘You would leave me, perhaps to the end of our lives together, not knowing what this person meant to you?’
    ‘I order you to leave this room.’
    ‘You do not care enough for me even to confide in me?’ she said.
    It was a revelation. Dark and withdrawn, he considered his wife and the package.
    ‘Mrs Crozier, it is seldom –I hope, in most cases, never – that a husband finds it necessary to speak to his wife as I must. When we first married I observed some lightness in your nature which I set down as girlish folly, and which I am happy to say has since been eradicated.’
    ‘Lightness?’
    ‘A tendency to foolish behaviour. You were pure and innocent . I know that. But there are certain duties which – I express myself as delicately as possible – must be performed between husband and wife. They are duties, madam, not pleasures. One does not marry for pleasure.’
    Colourless, she sat down in a chair and observed him with cold self-possession. Heedless of her moods, unless they disquieted him, he spoke half to her and half to himself, his eyes upon the package.
    ‘One marries in the Sight of God for the purpose of procreation. I am grateful to you, Mrs Crozier, for my two sons, who will – now they are out of your spoiling – be of some consequence in life. The British Empire is the greatest the world has ever known. Edmund and Lindsey will be dedicated to its service. I can think of no finer goal.’
    ‘You have a daughter, too,’ said Laura bitterly.
    ‘Whose tastes, I hope, may not become as extravagant as your own.’
    ‘Surely you wish me to dress becomingly, and according to your station?’
    ‘But not so expensively, madam. Your milliner’s bills alone are beyond everything!’
    ‘Wait!’ she said, dangerously quiet. ‘Let us not interrupt this sermon on my duties, Mr Crozier, by dragging in a milliner’s bill for which you have twice reprimanded me already. So I have given you two sons and burdened you with a daughter ? I keep your home as it should be kept. May I not ask for a little affection and trust in return?’
    ‘You had both, and a measure of respect which I do not wish to lose – though your behaviour puts it in some peril, madam.’
    She swept the packet from the bed with one blow of the hand, and it lay between them like reproach.
    ‘I have nothing ,’she cried, ‘nothing. And I hoped for so much.’
    Regarding her steadfastly, he issued a command.
    ‘Control yourself, madam. You are hysterical. You do not know what you are saying.’
    ‘Duties,’ she cried. ‘Duties. No tenderness, no true kindness, no understanding. Do you suppose that Mr Browning spoke of duties to his wife? He spoke of love, Mr Crozier. I loved you when we were