'I questioned everyone in the neighborhood. No one saw any stranger.'
Callandra sighed. 'Audley Penrose?'
'Yes.'
'Oh dear. Does she love him? Or think she does?'
'No. She is horrified-and apparently hurt,' he said wearily. 'She would rather be put out in the street as an immoral woman than have Julia know what happened.'
Hester bit her lip. 'Has she any conception what that would be like?'
'Probably not,' he replied. 'But that hardly matters. Julia won't allow that to happen-I don't think. But Marianne doesn't want me to tell anyone. She says she will deny it anyway, and I can understand that Audley will deny it, naturally. He has to. I have no idea what Julia will believe, or what she will have to say she believes.'
'Poor creature,' Hester said with sudden passion. 'What a fearful dilemma. What have you told her?'
'That I cannot find out who assaulted Marianne and I wish to be released from the case.'
Hester looked across at him, her face lit with warmth of admiration and respect.
He was caught unaware by how sweet it was to him. Without warning the bitterness vanished from the decision. His own pride slipped away.
'And you are content with that?' Callandra broke the moment.
'Not content,' he replied. 'But I can think of nothing better. There is no honorable alternative.'
'And Audley Penrose?' she pressed.
'I'd like to break his neck,' he said savagely. 'But that is a luxury I can't afford.'
'I am not thinking of you, William,' Callandra said soberly. She was the only person who called him by his given name, and while it pleased him with its familiarity, it also brought her close enough that pretense was impossible.
'What?' he said somewhat abruptly.
'I was not thinking of your satisfaction in revenge,' she elaborated. 'Sweet as that would be. Or the demands of justice, as you see it. I was thinking of Marianne Gillespie. How can she continue to live in that house, with what has happened to her, and may well happen again if he believes he has got away with it?'
'That is her choice,' Monk returned, but it was not a satisfying answer and he knew it. 'She was extremely insistent on it,' he went on, trying to justify himself. 'She begged me to promise that I would not tell Julia, and I gave her my word.'
'And what disturbs you now?' Callandra asked, her eyes wide.
Hester looked from one to the other of them, waiting, her concentration intense.
Monk hesitated.
'Is it purely vanity, because you do not like to appear to be defeated?' Callandra pursued. 'Is that all it is, William, your own reputation?'
'No-no, I'm not sure what it is,' he confessed, his anger temporarily abated.
'Have you considered what her life will be if he continues his behavior?' Callandra's voice was very quiet but the urgency in it filled the room. 'She will feel terrified every time she is alone with him in case it happens again. She will be terrified in case Julia ever discovers them and is devastated with grief.' She leaned farther forward in her chair. 'Marianne will feel she has betrayed her sister, although it is none of her choosing, but will Julia know that? Will she not always have that gnawing fear that in her heart Marianne was willing, and that in some subtle way she encouraged him?'
'I don't believe that,' he said fiercely. 'She would rather be put out on the street than have Julia know it.'
Callandra shook her head. 'I am not speaking of now, William. I am speaking of what will happen if she says nothing and remains in the house. She may not have thought of it yet, but you must. You are the only one.who knows all the facts and is in a position to act.'
Monk sat silent, the thoughts and fears crowding his mind.
It was Hester who spoke.
'There is something worse than that,' she said quietly. 'What if she became with child?'
Monk and Callandra both turned slowly toward her and it was only too apparent in their faces that such an idea had not occurred to them, and now that it had they were appalled.
'Whatever you promised, it is not enough,' Callandra said grimly. 'You cannot simply walk away and leave her to her fate.'
'But no one has the right to override her choice,' Hester argued, not out of obstructiveness but because it had to be said. Her own conflicting emotions were plain in her face. For once Monk felt no animosity toward her, only the old sense of total friendship, the bond that unites people who understand each other and care with equal passion in a single cause.
'If I don't give her an answer I think Julia may well seek another agent who will,' Monk added miserably. 'I didn't tell Marianne that because I didn't see her again after I spoke to Julia.'
'But what will happen if you tell Julia?' Hester asked anxiously. 'Will she believe you? She will be placed in an impossible situation between her husband and her sister.'
'And there is worse,' Monk went on. 'They are both financially dependent upon Audley.'
'He can't throw his wife out.' Hester sat upright, her face hot with anger. 'And surely she would not be so- oh, of course. You mean she may choose to leave. Oh dear.' She bit her lip. 'And even if his crime could be proved, which it almost certainly could not, and he were convicted, then there is not money for anyone and they would both be in the street. What a ridiculous situation.' Her fists clenched in her lap and her voice was husky with fury and frustration.
Suddenly she rose to her feet. 'If only women could earn a living as men can. If women could be doctors or architects and lawyers too.' She paced to the window and turned. 'Or even clerks and shopkeepers. Anything more than domestic servants, seamstresses, or whores! But what woman earns enough to live in anything better than one room in a lodging house if she's lucky, and in a tenement if she's not? And always hungry and always cold, and never sure next week will not be even worse.'
'You are dreaming,' Monk said, but not critically. He understood her feeling and the facts that, inspired it. 'And even if it happens one day, which is unlikely because it is against the natural social order, it won't help Julia Penrose or her sister. Anything I tell her-or don't-will cause terrible harm.'
They all remained in silence for several minutes, each wrestling with the problem in his or her own way, Hester by the window, Callandra leaning back in her chair, Monk on the edge of his. Finally it was Callandra who spoke.
'I think you should tell Julia,' she said very quietly, her voice low and unhappy. 'It is not a good solution, but I believe it is better than not telling her. If you do, then at least the decision what to do is hers, not yours. And as you say, she may well press the matter until she learns something, whatever you do. And please God that is the right decision. We can only hope.'
Monk looked at Hester.
'I agree,' she answered. 'No solution is satisfactory, and you will ruin her peace whatever you say, but I think perhaps that is ruined anyway. If he continues, and Marianne is either seriously hurt or with child, it will be worse. And then Julia would blame herself-and you.'
'What about my promise to Marianne?' he asked.
Her eyes were filled with unhappiness.
'Do you suppose she knows what dangers there are ahead? She is young, unmarried. She may not even be aware of what they are. Many girls have no idea of childbirth, or even what brings it about; they only discover in the marriage bed.'
'I don't know.' It was not enough of an answer. 'I gave her my word.'
'Than you will have to tell her that you cannot keep it,' Callandra replied. 'Which will be very hard. But what is your alternative?'
'To keep it.'
'Will that not be even harder-if not at first, then later?”
He knew that was true. He would not be able to turn his back on the affair and forget it. Every tragic possibility would haunt his imagination, and he would have to accept at least part of the responsibility for all of them.
'Yes,' he admitted. 'Yes-I shall have to go back and tell Marianne.'
'I'm sorry.' Hester touched his arm briefly, then withdrew.
