The Widows Club

that, striving for a better angle, Ben caught me by the shoulders. His eyes shot blue-green sparks off the mirror.

“Ellie, no woman looks her best with her jaw out of kilter and a look of unspeakable horror in her eyes. You know what your problem is?”

“I fail the can’t-pinch-an-inch test.”

His voice softened. “You haven’t gone browsing in the shops for a while. You’re suffering withdrawal. Go into the village, squander money, have your hair done.”

I began brushing my hair. “While I’m about it, I’ll get a nose job and a tummy tuck.” My spirits lifted. “I’ll phone Sidney for an appointment; you and I can drive into the village together.”

Ben moved my hair aside and kissed my neck. “Darling, I wish I could wait for you, but Freddy and I are due to meet Mrs. Hanover, owner of The Dark Horse, in twenty minutes. We have to discuss sharing some deliveries of wine. But you’re free to take the car. We are going on the motorbike.” A kiss on the other side of my neck. “How about joining us for lunch?”

“I don’t think so, thank you.”

“Is something wrong, Ellie?”

“Of course not.” I plunged the brush into my hair. “A passionate embrace ere you make your getaway might have brightened my day, but…”

“I’m sorry, Ellie. Unlike the heroes in those da-romance novels you are forever glued to, I can’t stand with my arm draped over the mantelpiece all day, looking delectable.”

He did have this habit of reducing everything to culinary terms! He took a step toward me, then retreated to the door. “Drive carefully, dear.”

Not “sweetheart,” not “my beloved”! The brush flew through my hair. “Don’t worry, Ben, I will rescue any car parts that fall off en route.”

“We aren’t quarrelling, are we?” He spun the door handle.

“Absolutely not,” I said with a pang of nostalgia for the old days when quarrelling with a vengeance meant a sizzling relationship, not a marriage with problems.

And that’s what comes of reading Felicity Friend.

This was my first visit to Sidney’s salon. My initial impression was that I had made a mistake. This wasn’t the sort of place that automatically made a girl feel pretty. The air was laden with hair spray and permy smells. The linoleum was maroon, speckled with grey; the lighting was harsh, and the washbasins lining one wall looked like urinals for extra tall men. The girl behind the desk had surely been employed as a warning against do-it-yourself glamour. Her hair was straw-coloured… straw.

“Hallo?” She beamed a gapped-tooth smile.

“Ellie Haskell. I have an appointment at-”

She looked me over. “Wouldn’t bother if I was you-look lovely the way you are, but if you’re sure…” She threw up her hands. “Sidney will be with you in a few minutes. Hang your coat on a peg and take one of them pink overalls. Quite like Vidal Sassoon, aren’t we? Coffee’s on the table.”

It came out of the pot like treacle, but the assortment of teacups and saucers didn’t come from Woolworth. Each piece was different; some were old, all were pretty. I studied the urinal wall. Two girls in trailing skirts and lumpy sweaters were shampooing. Sidney, stationed between them, looked in this environment more than ever like a caveman. Gloom radiated from him. The woman whose hair he was swirling into puffs and coils was talking away at a furious rate. Rings flashed as she gesticulated. Her face shook like a blancmange which wouldn’t set.

I leaned sideways. It was Mrs. Amelia Bottomly. Better not to be seen by her. She would want to know if I had located any dungeons yet at Merlin’s Court.

“Psst! Mrs. Haskell!” A hairdryer lid flipped up and a blond head emerged. “Thinking about that brand-new gorgeous husband, eh? Remember me? Bunty Wiseman?”

“Yes-hello.” She was the young woman in the thigh-length, ostrich-feather coat at the reception, the one whose photograph had been on Lionel Wiseman’s desk.

“Bunty’s a nickname, but don’t ask me what my real one is, it’s too awful. Most times I let my hair dry natural, but I promised Li I wouldn’t walk down Market Street with a wet head.”

“Not the weather for it,” I said.

She wiggled her shoulders and flapped a hand at me. “Doesn’t fit the image of a respected solicitor’s wife. Balls, is what I’d say to that, only I’ve my eye on this nifty diamond dangle at Pullets Jewelers, so have to keep the old darling’s fur laying right.”

Mr. Wiseman’s wife? I had thought she was his daughter.

“Mrs. Haskell,” the receptionist’s voice cut in, “Sidney is ready for yooo.”

“Hold on.” Bunty had both hands on the dryer lid. “Teddy Peerless-she’s Li’s secretary-and I are lunching at The Dark Horse. Care to join us?”

“I…” Amelia Bottomly was coming our way, like a buoy bobbing on the ocean.

“See you. Twelve-forty-five.” Bunty clasped the hairdryer on like a crash helmet.

Mrs. Bottomly’s voice boomed, “Ellie Haskell!” The chins shook with apparent pleasure. “Tell me, dear, what do you think of Sidney’s handiwork? Makes me look years younger, don’t you agree? The man’s an artist. Well, they so often are. The sweet things give us women the coiffures they would like themselves.” She lifted a mirror off a wall shelf, twitched a side curl, pursed her lips, and patted the chins into shape with the back of her hand. “You get my meaning, don’t you, dear? You are a married woman.”

“One who’s keeping her hairdresser waiting,” I said.

“And that certainly won’t do. Believe you me, a visit to Sidney is a health cure! I tell him everything from the pills I take for constipation to what I enjoy most in opera. Take my advice, dear, put yourself totally in his hands. If Sidney says cut”-she patted down a loop atop the mound-“then so be it. And, dear”-she jerked me back by the shoulder-“I will be phoning you about the Historical Society doing a home tour, and the Hearthside Guild is interested in having your husband put on a cookery demonstration. Nothing too Frenchified-a stew perhaps. I did try to catch Mr. Haskell a half-hour or so ago as he was going into The Dark Horse but he was lost in conversation with that cousin of yours who created such an uproar… ious diversion at your wedding. And now he’s moved in with you, I hear.”

Somehow she managed to make the situation sound unseemly. My natural defensiveness was aroused. But before I could explain that Freddy’s life had derailed and I was the depot, a hand touched my elbow.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Bottomly,” interposed Sidney. And before she could get going on an apology, he led me to a chair and spun me to face a washbasin and mirror.

Taking the pins from my hair he tossed it dispiritedly into the air. “What’s it to be, Ellie luv? Oh, don’t you look awful! Hollow eyes, white lips. Either the honeymoon didn’t agree with you or you’ve just lost your best friend.”

My eyes met his gloomy ones in the mirror. Problems were what this man did best. At last someone who understood that happiness is sometimes burdensome.

“The honeymoon was fine, but you’re right about the best friend-doubled.”

My hair floated into the washbasin as I explained how the U.S.A. had enticed Dorcas and Jonas to defect. Warm water soothed; its gentle rushing softened my lament.

“Terrible, Ellie! How you must have suffered. I feel your pain-right here.” Sidney’s hands sudsed and massaged so it was impossible to tell with which part of his anatomy he empathized, but his sigh, gusting down my neck, warmed the cockles of my heart.

“And to top it all, Sidney, there has been this worry over Ben’s mother. You understand, we are not broadcasting the facts over the BBC, but since you’ve known the family for years, it won’t matter telling you, Sidney, that her disappearance is connected to rumours that my father-in-law is involved with another woman. Not to mince matters-Ben’s parents have separated.”

“Never! Won’t my mum be shocked! This other woman, would she be a Mrs. Jarrod? Redhead? Given to tight- fitting jumpers?”

I got water all down my back. “None other.”

“Good God, I can’t believe it! The woman’s not his type at all. Why, she’s yards taller than him-he’d have to hop like a rabbit just to kiss her good night. And I told you what Mr. Haskell thinks of tall women. I hate to make you feel worse than you already do, Ellie, but has to be the man’s in love and his brains have dropped below the belt.