Act of Betrayal (25 page)

handshake was firm and crisp, and shrewd eyes studied Laura.

'She's waiting for you. I'll take you straight in.' She paused. '

I'll give you about half an hour, then bring in tea. May I ask

you to try not to agitate her too much? She is an invalid after

all, and I can't truly say I approve of her seeing you.' Laura

groaned inwardly. Surely this pleasant looking woman wasn't

another jealous, resentful Mrs Fraser, from whom she'd parted to

their mutual satisfaction only a few hours before? ' I ' l l

try,' she said levelly. 'Although it's difficult to see how I'm

going to agitate someone with arthritis.' 'That's true.' Miss

Bishop looked slightly amused. 'Only it isn't arthritis. She has

a heart condition.' She opened a door on the left of the hall and

nodded Laura inside before she could ask anything else. She felt

totally bewildered. Bethany must have misunderstood, she thought.

Perhaps it would have been more sensible if she'd had a talk with

Mrs Chesterfield's grand-daughter first and checked up on the

situation. That was her first thought. Her second was that the

woman seated in a high-backed wing chair by the window was hardly

old enough to have an adult granddaughter. Her dark hair had

silver wings at the temples, and her face had a drawn look, but

she was hardly more than middle-aged. Laura realised she was

staring and moved forward in embarrassment. She said, 'Mrs

Chesterfield? It's very good of you to see me without a

preliminary letter.' 'On the contrary.' Mrs Chesterfield's voice

was low and rather musical. She was staring too, taking in every

inch of Laura from head to foot. Her smile was charming. 'I've

been so much wanting to meet you at last ,Laura.' Laura stopped

short. Her conversation with Miss Bishop had been brief, but she

was certain her Christian name had never been mentioned. She said

slowly, 'You know my name?' The older woman nodded. 'And I have

you at a disadvantage, because you don't know mine.' What on

earth was she talking about? Laura's brows twisted in a frown.

'Have I come to the wrong house? I have an interview with a Mrs

Chesterfield. I'm so sorry...' 'This is the house. Only my name

is not Chesterfield.' Her face was rueful for a moment. 'Well, I

thought if I said I was Lady Wingard then you might not come.'

'Lady Wingard.' Laura stood very still. 'Yes, my dear. I'm your

mother-in-law.' Laura shook her head. Her brain was churning. She

said, ' I have no mother-in-law. I'm no longer married.' 'I'm

well aware of that. That's why it was arranged for you to come

here today.' 'Arranged?' Laura almost choked. 'But Bethany said .

. . ' 'Is that your friend who owns the restaurant? I'm very

grateful to her for her help, although my son tells me she wasn't

easy to persuade. But he was able to convince her eventually that

he has nothing but your well-being at heart.' 'How kind of him.'

Laura felt blank with shock, but anger was kindling too. T think

I'd better be going.' 'Oh, please don't run away.' Lady Wingard

extended a thin hand, her face appealing. 'This isn't easy for me

either, but I have to talk to you, Laura. I have to tell you

things I swore I would never tell anyone. I've been so terribly

at fault, but you must let me do what I can to make amends.' She

paused, her eyes scanning Laura's rigid face. A faint sigh

escaped her. 'You don't understand one word I'm saying, and why

should you, after all? Please sit down. Please listen to me, if

not for my sake, then for Jason's. He's been so loyal, so caring,

when it would have served me right if he'd never had anything to

do with me again.' Laura sank down on to the edge of the chair

Lady Wingard indicated. She said, T don't think you and I have

anything to say to each other, but I'm prepared to listen if

that's all that will satisfy you.' 'It isn't.' Lady Wingard

leaned forward, her dark eyes suddenly brilliant. 'What would

satisfy me would be to see you and Jason together again husband

and wife.' She smiled. 'As my dear dragon has no doubt told you,

my health is poor. I'd like to enjoy my grandchildren in the time

I have left.' Laura winced. 'I'm sorry—there's no possibility .

. . ' She hesitated, acutely embarrassed. 'Besides you must know

you already have grandchildren.' She saw pain in the dark eyes,

and started up in alarm. 'You're not well. Let me call Miss

Bishop Lady Wingard's hand rose commandingly, halting her. She

leaned back in her chair, eyes closed, biting nervously at her

lip. She said half to herself, T never imagined how hard this was

going to be.' Her voice firmed. ' I married an

ambitious man, Laura. Oh, I was in love with him, but it was the

ambition that attracted me initially the knowledge that he was

going to be a success. Tristan Construction was nothing when he

inherited it, but he built it, poured his heart into it, and I

worked with him in those early years at least until Jason was

born. Then I took more of a back seat. As the company grew, our

social contacts increased. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed entertaining

and was good at it.' She paused, her face wry. 'Better, in fact,

than I was at being a wife. I wasn't very well while I was

carrying Jason and afterwards and I let it be an excuse. I'm sure

I don't have to explain further.' 'No, indeed.' Laura was

uncomfortable. 'Lady Wingard you don't have to tell me any of

this 'Ah, but I do otherwise you might not understand what

happened later. On the surface, we passed as a happily married

couple devoted, I think the word is but under the surface there

were already rifts. After a while I realised my husband was

having an affair. I faced him with it, and he admitted

it—admitted that it hadn't been the first. I made it clear that

he could amuse himself as he wished as long as he was discreet. I

also told him that I would never agree to a divorce. The laws at

that time were rather different. He accepted this and we went on

as before, presenting a successful front to the world. I was an

excellent hostess an asset to Tristans and my husband treated me

generously. He bought me the house I wanted no ' she smiled

faintly 'not this one. I had the right clothes " expensive

jewellery everything to contribute to the perfect image. But

however much I might pretend, the truth was we were leading

separate lives and sooner or later there was going to be a

crisis.' She paused and looked at Laura. 'The crisis came when a

girl called Clare Marshall joined the firm. She'd been at

university with Jason. They were friends, but not lovers. And my

husband fell in love with her.' There was a tense silence, then

Laura found her voice. 'Your husband.' 'Yes,' said Lady Wingard.

'It was instant, mutual and apparently overwhelming, although to

give the girl her due she resisted at first even handed her

notice in at one point. But in the end, she became his mistress.

She left Tristan Construction and went to live in a flat for

which he paid the rent. Eventually, she found she was going to

have a child, and my husband asked me to divorce him so that he

could marry her. I refused. I told myself I was perfectly

justified. I had a comfortable, even a luxurious life which I was

not prepared to jeopardise. Also we'd learned that there was the

possibility of a knighthood in the offing. The last thing we

wanted was a scandal—especially a sordid divorce. I saw no

reason why things could not go on as they were.' She sighed.

'But, of course, they didn't. My husband wished to marry Miss

Marshall. Our civilised relationship deteriorated. Jason and his

father had already quarrelled bitterly over the affair with Miss

Marshall. He'd been aware of his father's philandering for some

time, and he was deeply angered that the girl he'd introduced to

the firm was now involved in what he saw as one of a series of

passing affairs. When he heard about the baby, he was shattered.

He began to see that it wasn't just a trivial relationship, and

he too tried to persuade me to end a marriage which by then had

become pretty much of a hell for all concerned.' She looked down

at her hands folded in her lap. 'But I wouldn't listen. I refused

utterly to become that object of pity and derision the middle

aged deserted wife. In the end Jason told us that he wanted

nothing further to do with eith of of us and left Tristans.' She

smiled wrily. 'It seemed to me that because of this Marshall girl

I had lost my husband, and now my son. I began to hate her more

than I had ever thought possible. When her child was born and my

husband told me he had registered the birth stating he was the

father, I behaved like a mad woman. It wasn't long after that I

suffered my first mild heart attack.' She looked calmly at Laura.

I needed a weapon, and now I had one, and I used it. I told him

that while I was prepared for him to go on supporting Clare

Marshall and her child, he was not to see her again. For a while,

our marriage tottered on. What I hadn't foreseen of course was

the breakdown in my husband's own health.' She smiled a little.

'By this time, of course, Jason had met and married you. In spite

of the breach between us, we'd kept track of him naturally. We

contacted him, asked if we could meet you. The answer came back

that he wouldn't bring the girl he loved to be contaminated by

the kind of dishonest relationship we were practising.' Laura

who'd been sitting as if turned to marble, stirred in her chair.

'That was cruel of him,' she said slowly. 'It was justified,'

Lady Wingard said drily. 'After all Jason had experienced first

hand the kind of dreadful hostility and bitterness that existed

between us. It was what had driven him away.' 'But when his

father collapsed with a stroke, he was the one who got him into

the private clinic, and there was a reconciliation of sorts.

There had to be. My husband had been on the point of transferring

to Miss Marshall's bank account the money she needed for herself

and the child, including the rental of the flat.' She drew a deep

breath. 'I'd assumed the relationship was at an end, only to

discover that he'd actually been taken ill at her flat, and that

she was expecting another child.' Laura was looking back,

remembering with a kind of incredulity the conclusions she had

drawn. She said, 'So Clare Marshall turned to Jason didn't she?'

'She had little choice. The rent was due and there were other

bills which in the normal course of events my husband would have

settled. She had no money and I refused to advance her any, even

though I'd received a message from my husband begging me to do

so. And Jason came to her rescue.' 'The money he borrowed from

our savings account.' Laura's eyes were anguished. 'Why oh why

didn't he tell me what was going on?' 'Because I had begged him

not to,' Jason's mother said flatly. T told him it would kill me

if one word of his father's infidelity ever leaked out to another

soul. I even staged another attack, and I got his promise. He

would never ever tell anyone the truth about his father and Miss

Marshall without my agreement.' Her eyes met Laura's. ' If you're

waiting to hear me say that I would have behaved differently if

I'd known the harm I was going to cause, then I'm afraid you'll

be disappointed, my dear. I cared for nothing but my own pride

and that image of the perfect marriage. And when my husband died,

it became in some strange way, even more important to sustain the

pretence.' 'Jason came to me in a terrible state. He told me you

had left him, believing him to be Clare's lover and the father of

her children. There was an awful scene and when he left, I didn't

have to pretend any more. I became genuinely ill . They talk

about kismet, don't they? Perhaps this was mine.' ^ 'You still

wouldn't let him tell the truth?' Laura's body was as taut as a

bowstring. Lady Wingard shook her head. 'AH I can say in my own

defence is that for a long time I was too ill even to discuss the

matter. Later gradually I came to see what I had done, but still