Rachel Lindsay - Unwanted Wife

by Rachel Lindsay

  "Excuse me, sir, but do you know where Mrs. Adrian is?"

  "Isn't she in her room?"

  "No, sir. And I don't think she was in it all night. I mean, her bed hasn't been slept in and the cupboard's half-empty."

  "What!" Not waiting to hear any more, he took the stairs three at a time.

  As Jean had said, the bed was still made and the cupboards were half-bare. The glamorous evening dresses still hung there but the bulk of her day-wear had gone. Hurriedly he searched the room for a note but found nothing. Roger! he thought suddenly. She had gone to Roger.

  Without hesitation he went to his car. His mind refused to work beyond this point and he drove like an automaton, only returning to a semblance of life when he reached Roger's house and thumped on the door, the action helping to relieve some of his tension. He was still thumping on it when it was opened by a small boy who looked so much like Roger that Adrian knew it was his brother.

  "Is Roger in?" he asked abruptly.

  "Yes. You're Mr. Chesterton, aren't you?"

  "What's the trouble, Brian?" a voice called and Roger came into view, stopping in surprise as he saw Adrian. He was too intelligent to pretend he thought it a social visit and at once led Adrian into the sitting room. "What's up?" he asked.

  "I've come for Tanya."

  "Why here?"

  "Because I know she's with you. Her bed wasn't slept in last night and her clothes have gone."

  "She's not here, I'm afraid. I only wish she were."

  "Do you, by God!"

  "Only because we'd know where she was," Roger said quickly. "Tanya and I aren't emotionally involved."

  "I—I know that," Adrian said jerkily. "Forgive me if I'm not making much sense but I—but I've got to find her. If she isn't here…" His eyes narrowed. "Of course, she must have gone to Tapley with Diana."

  "Diana didn't go back to Tapley last night. She stayed here." Embarrassed, Roger thrust his hands into his pockets and said in a rush: "Diana and I are engaged. My mother insisted she come back with us last night. She's in the kitchen now."

  Adrian was at a loss for words. He collapsed on to a chair and rested his head on his hands. "So we still don't know where Tanya is."

  "As far away from here as possible, I should think," Roger said bluntly. "She as good as told me she'd leave here once the election was over. And when she heard you'd lost, she must have decided to go immediately."

  "How she must hate me," Adrian said with deep bitterness.

  "How she must love you," Roger replied, and Adrian raised his head.

  "You think so?"

  "Don't tell me you didn't know!" Roger's expression veered between irritation and sympathy, and sympathy won. "Good heavens, man, she's never stopped loving you. Why do you think she agreed to be nursemaid to your sister's children? To take her place as your wife .when you finally decided it suited you to admit who she was? If she'd had an ounce of pride she'd have thrown back the offer in your face and walked out! The only reason she stayed was because she loved you, and if she's run away now, it's because she's given up hope of getting you back."

  "That can't be true!" Adrian jumped to his feet. "Time and again I've tried to tell her how I feel but she always fobbed me off."

  "Maybe she was afraid you were only going to make the best of things."

  Adrian groaned, remembering how many times he had used that expression to Tanya. No wonder she had doubted his feelings for her.

  "I love my wife," he said harshly. "Wanting to start again had nothing to do with expediency. If I had to leave England in order to be with her, I'd go."

  "You should have told her."

  "I wanted to wait till the election was over in case she felt I was using it as a ploy to keep her here."

  Roger nodded. "I can see your reasoning but it won't help us find Tanya."

  Adrian's shoulders sagged. "She can't just disappear. She has no money and she's bound to go to one of the refugee organizations to help her."

  "She's got too much pride to ask anyone for help."

  Roger said cuttingly. "Surely you know her well enough, to realize that."

  "I don't seem to have known her at all," Adrian said bitterly.

  The opening of the door made both men turn and Roger moved forward, arms outstretched as Diana came in. Though she smiled at him it was to Adrian that she went.

  "I suppose Roger's told you the news," she said.

  He stared at her blankly, then with an effort remembered and smiled. "Yes, he has. Congratulations. I hope—I'm sure you'll be happy."

  "I know we will. If I can finally stand up to Father, I'm sure I can stand up to Roger!" She paused, her own pleasure fading as she realized that only extraordinary circumstances could have brought Adrian here. "Something's happened to Tanya, hasn't it?"

  "Yes. She's gone."

  "Surely it won't be difficult to find her?" Diana looked at Roger. "I'm sure you've both got lots of contacts".

  "Not to find missing persons," Roger said. "The police are best for that." He glanced at Adrian. "Unless you don't want the publicity?"

  "I don't give a damn about the publicity as long as I can find Tanya," Adrian retorted. "But let's look quietly first. If she finds out we're searching for her, she might go to ground so successfully we'll never find her."

  Never find her. They were words that echoed repeatedly in Adrian's brain as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months.

  Inquiries at the railway station elicited the fact that she had caught the last train to London, and a porter at Victoria remembered a young woman with a suitcase getting off the train in the early hours of the morning and asking to be directed to the nearest tube station. After that the trail had been lost;

  A well-known detective agency was brought in and when they finally admitted defeat, Adrian went to the police. But since he could not tell them he suspected foul play, they were unable to help, obviously regarding her flight from him as a wife's prerogative. In desperation he then contacted various refugee organizations, and though he received many names and addresses from them, none of them led to his wife.

  He grew noticeably thinner and the flecks of gray at his temples became a definite silvering. He smiled less and less frequently and threw all his energies into the estate. But even this did not tire him and eventually he agreed to stand for Parliament in another constituency, hoping to forget his love by working himself to the maximum.

  "You should ease up a bit," Dick commented one morning as they drove in the Land Rover to inspect various cottages.

  "Work's my panacea," Adrian replied. "Without it, I don't think I could go on."

  "You love Tanya more now than when you married her, "Dick went on.

  "I'm more of a man," Adrian said, and hated himself because it was true; a truth that had come too late.

  Christmas was the most dreary holiday he could remember spending. The effort to maintain an act in front of his family was more than he could cope with and on Boxing Day he went off on a skiing holiday. But though he had booked in at the resort for two weeks, he only had the patience to remain for one, and was glad to return to familiar surroundings, even though they reminded him of Tanya.

  Tanya! She was like a fever in his blood that nothing could abate. It was only the fact that he was now living alone at Park Gates that made life tolerable, for at least when alone he had no need to pretend.

  His mother had settled down in her cottage and had started to look up old friends around the country, while Betty was enjoying her new-found domesticity and had blossomed into an excellent cook.

  "At least I feel I'm a wife and a mother," she said one morning in mid-March, "and I owe it all to Tanya." The moment she spoke the name she looked dismayed and Adrian immediately put her mind at rest.

  "Whether or not you talk about her makes no difference to my thinking of her," he said.

  "You think of her often?"

  "All the time."

  "Poor Adrian."

  " It's m
y own fault," he said shortly.

  "Have you considered the fact that you might never find her?"

  "I daren't think of that. I'm living on hope. It's all I've got."

  Three days later Adrian's hope was justified when his solicitor, Mr. Truscott, telephoned to say he had news of Tanya.

  "She wrote to me yesterday," he explained. "She is worried that you might have had difficulty in terminating your marriage and wanted to know if there were any papers for her to sign."

  "Then you've got her address!" Adrian gave a jubilant shout. "Where is she?"

  "I cannot tell you. She wrote to me in the strictest confidence."

  "I'll have you know you're my solicitor!" Adrian stormed. "And you also happen to be dealing with my wife. Do you understand that? My wife!"

  "I am well aware of the position," Mr. Truscott replied with dignity.

  "Then give me her address." There was complete silence at the other end of the line. "Look here, Truscott," he said quietly, "you know I've been trying for months to find out where my wife is. Not because I want to finalize my divorce but because I want to start my marriage again. If you prevent me seeing her, you'll be going against the law. Have you thought of that? You're supposed to do everything possible to get a couple together again!"

  "That isn't strictly true, Mr. Chesterton," the lawyer replied, "but I see your point." There was another silence, broken by the wire crackling disapprovingly. "I cannot see my way clear to breaking a confidence but I see nothing remiss in telling you that Mrs. Chesterton is in the Scilly Isles."

  "What the devil is she doing there?"

  "I cannot tell you that, but I gather she has been there some time."

  "I see. Thanks for your help, Truscott. I won't forget it."

  He was on his way to the Sicily Isles an hour later.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The airplane throbbed through the sky and Adrian impatiently wished he could have commandeered a jet. At this rate it would be another hour before he touched down. Only Diana, whom he had met on the village station, knew where he was going, for she had sensed his inner excitement and guessed at the reason.

  "You know where Tanya is?" she had said eagerly.

  "At least I know where to start my search."

  "I hope things work out well for you."

  "No need for me to ask if they're working for you. You look radiant."

  "I'm terribly happy." She paused. "Even happier today, because Father has agreed to welcome Roger."

  "I told you he would, given time. He didn't dance at your wedding, but I guaranteed he'd do so at the christening!"

  "In eight months' time," she confessed. "You're the first to know."

  Adrian was astounded. "It wasn't an inspired guess on my part. I was just making a joke.''

  They had parted in London, Diana to return to her new home in Westminster, Adrian to make for the airport.

  It was late afternoon when he reached Hugh Town, the capital of St. Mary's, the largest of the Stilly Isles. The weather was so warm here that he took off his coat as he started to walk through the streets. The absence of cars made an almost tangible silence and he wondered if this was why Tanya had come here. It was also about as far as she could get from Park Gates without actually leaving Britain, and his heart contracted as he digested this bitter idea. Well, assuming she had picked this place because it was the safest one in which to hide, what would be her first move when she arrived? To find somewhere to stay. He frowned. There were so many private boarding houses here that to visit each one was impossible. But after finding a place to live, she would want a job, and here he felt a greater surge of optimism. In a small place like this it should not be difficult to find a foreigner out of season.

  By now he had reached the center of the town and feeling thirsty he went into a cafe for a drink. The woman who served him had the tanned skin of the habitual islander and her eyes were the same gray-blue as the surrounding water.

  "Come for a holiday, sir?" she questioned as she set down the fresh orange juice he ordered.

  "No—" He hesitated. The woman's eyes were so deep a color that he was reminded of Tanya's, though hers were a different shade; and memory of Tanya made him blurt out the truth. "It's my wife actually. I'm looking for, her. We quarreled and she ran away. "

  The woman looked sympathetic. "When would that have been, sir?"

  ''Last autumn. But I'm not sure when she came here.''

  "Have your tried the hotels?"

  "She wouldn't have that sort of money. She's very proud and… I'm sure she has a job."

  "Then like as not she'd have been sent to Mrs. Tregar. The eyes and the ears of the Sicily Isles, that woman is.

  Always knows when anyone wants an extra pair of hands."

  Adrian paid for his drink. "If you could tell me where to find her "

  "I'll take you there myself," the woman said, and led him a few yards down the street to an old-fashioned grocery shop where Mrs. Tregar—a gnome-like woman with white hair and beady black eyes—presided behind a large brown counter covered with boxes of detergents and cornflakes.

  "This gentleman is looking for his wife," said the woman at Adrian's side. "She's foreign and would have wanted a job."

  "Quite a few foreign girls come here looking for work."

  "She wears her hair in a braid around her head," Adrian said diffidently.

  "Well now, why didn't you say so in the first place? 'Course I remember her. Hair like a newly minted penny piece. Very beautiful young woman if I may say so."

  "Do you know where she is?" Adrian asked.

  "Can't say for sure. I gave her a couple of addresses. One was a guest house not far from the harbor. They wanted a maid but I doubt if she went there or I'd have seen her in the town."

  "And the other address?" Adrian tried to hide his impatience.

  "A flower farm on the other side of the island. You can walk it in half an hour. Mayfield, it's called. I'm sure she's there."

  Praying this would be the case, Adrian set off along the steep cliff road with the Atlantic swelling gently to his right. In the distance, looking gloomy and solitary, he could see the Penninis Head lighthouse, while to his left the landscape was dotted with cacti, aloes and prickly pear, giving the scene a tropical flavor that made it difficult to believe England was only a few miles away.

  He breasted the highest point of the road and then began to descend until, turning past a clump of trees, he felt himself to be in fairyland. Surrounding him were fields of flowers, a confusion of color that sprang like a rainbow out of the brown earth.

  Pushing open a large double gate, he made his way through a vista of pink and yellow to a group of greenhouses. This was obviously Mayfieid, and if his luck held out he would soon be seeing Tanya. What should he say to her? He ran his hand inside his collar and felt his skin to be damp. He was breathing heavily too and knew it had nothing to do with his brisk walk.

  The scent of flowers was sickly in his nostrils and he wished he had spared the time to have something more substantial than an orange juice. It was crazy to rush halfway across England in search of his wife, only to fall down at her feet when he arrived!

  He quickened his pace and then stopped, for coming toward him was a girl carrying an enormous armful of tulips, the same radiant gold as her hair. Her eyes were fixed lovingly on the blooms in her arms and she cradled them as if they were a child. Adrian's throat constricted and he would have given everything he possessed if, at that moment, it could truly have been a child in Tanya's arms—his child.

  He murmured her name softly, and although she could not have heard his voice across the distance that separated them, some instinct told her she was being watched and she looked up and saw him. Her steps faltered and then slowly continued, not stopping again until she was a couple of yards away from him.

  "So you are here. I should have known better than to trust your solicitor."

  "He told me in what part of England you were," Adrian said qui
etly. "And only then after I had practically threatened him with murder! I came to St. Mary's and took a chance I'd be able to find you."

  "Why did you want to?"

  The question should have been an easy one to answer but he could not bring himself to tell her he loved her. What would he do if she laughed at him? Until now he had lived with the hope of rebuilding their life together, but what life would he have if he were forced to live it alone?

  "I must put the flowers down," Tanya said. "It is not good for them to be carried like this. If you will come into the greenhouse, we can talk."

  "Talk?"

  "About the future. It is why you are here, is it not?"

  Silently he followed her into the damp warmth of the greenhouse and watched as she set the tulips on a table. He saw a pile of boxes at her feet and noticed that several of them were already filled with blooms.

  "You don't have to pack them, do you?"

  "No. George—one of the men—does that." She pointed to a rickety chair. "It is not comfortable, but it is the best I can offer."

  "I don't want to sit down. I…" Beads of sweat stood out on his forehead and Tanya saw them.

  "It is hot for you in here," she said matter of factly. "Would you prefer it if we went outside?"

  "No—yes—dammit, I don't know."

  "Why are you behaving so strangely, Adrian? You stare at me as if I am a ghost.''

  "Perhaps you are. I've been searching for you for so long. I can't believe I've found you. I keep imagining you'll disappear."

  She shook her head. "I am as real as the flowers."

  "But the flowers are picked and sent away," he said jerkily, "and if you go away I'll…" His control was slipping and the words inside him began to tumble out. "How can you blame me for staring at you, when for months I've stared at every woman I've seen in the street, hoping against hope it might be you! You don't know what hell I've gone through since you left me. I've tried every possible means to find you, and when Truscott called me this morning and said he'd heard from you, I came here straight away."