Free Fortune's Hand by Belva Plain Page B

interrupted.
    â€œYou understand very well, I think. No man leaves a marriage, and you two have practically been married for seven years, without there being a new woman in the picture. Don’t waste time, Robb. Speak out. I’m way ahead of you.”
    â€œI feel sick,” he said. “I don’t know how to explain what happened. I beg you to understand if you can, and to help Lily understand. It’s—it’s crazy.” He faltered. “Crazy, when I care so deeply about Lily. But I met this—this other—and oh my God I’ve tried, I’ve suffered so much over it—”
    Mrs. Webster exploded. “
You
have suffered?
You?
Oh, it’s as clear as the nose on your handsome face. I said all along it was a big mistake when you went off to school and left her behind! And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you’ve been acting rather strangely these last months. Lily must have seen it, too, but she’s too loyal to say so. She’s not stupid, though, and neither amI. I see it all. Got what you wanted out of her, didn’t you? A decent young girl, no risk for you, very convenient, hey?”
    Heat stung all through Robb’s body. Sex was the crude, unmistakable meaning. That he had used Lily, she meant. A clean, safe outlet for his need. It was shameful.
    â€œI always thought, I even said once to Lily, that you’re too good-looking to be trusted. What kind of slut have you picked up anyway, now that you’ve discarded my daughter? I’d like to get my hands on her for two minutes. Just let me find out who she is.”
    â€œMrs. Webster, please, she’s terribly distressed about this. It’s not her doing. She’s a good person from a good home like yours. Her father’s a lawyer—”
    â€œA lawyer! How nice for you! You bastard!” Mad with her justifiable rage, Mrs. Webster was using language that perhaps through all her prim life she had used only in the silence of her mind.
    â€œMrs. Webster, can’t we—”
    â€œNo, we can’t, you devil. Get out. Now. Go to your woman and rot. Go, I said, or I’ll push you down the stairs.”
    He fled. For a while he sat in the car and looked up at the house where the two women were locked between her mother’s fury and Lily’s agony. The lunch so lovingly prepared for him would go uneaten, while the little Christmas tree sparkled in pathetic splendor. And on the sidewalk people jogged and greeted and carried bundles as if this were any ordinary day.
    What had he done to Lily Webster? What would shedo when she awoke tomorrow morning and remembered that her life had turned suddenly upside down?
    He started the car and drove slowly away from Marchfield. When he had gone a few miles, he stopped and was sick at the side of the road. Then he got in the car again and drove away to the city.
    The sofa pillow was soaked with her tears. They had exhausted her body. When they stopped, dry sobs like hiccups took her breath.
    â€œLily—open your eyes. Sit up, Lily dear, he’s not worth it.”
    Her mother’s voice was close by. When she looked up her mother was standing over her. For however long she had been lying here like this, her mother must have been hovering with that anxious, frightened look on her face.
    She could be an annoyance sometimes with her nagging counsel and inquisitive questions, but you could always trust her.
She
would never lie to you! Never desert you, never say,
Well, I’ve found another daughter, I’m sorry, it just happened. I didn’t mean
—And thinking so, the tears began again.
    â€œHoney, you’ll ruin your eyes. They’re all swollen. I’ll get a towel and some ice cubes.”
    The kindness only made worse the awful, incredible reality. An hour ago, a year ago, a second ago—how long was it that he had stood there? Yes, right in that spot, wearing a red-striped muffler around his