Mrs Pargeter 06; Mrs Pargeter’s Point of Honour

∨ Mrs Pargeter’s Point of Honour ∧

Forty-Seven

When she got back to Greene’s Hotel, Mrs Pargeter looked contritely at the photograph on her bedside table. Though the black and white features of the soberly suited gentleman in the frame never actually changed, she could read different moods into the well-known face, and the mood she could see now was one of reproach. That expression had remained since their previous conversation had been interrupted by the arrival at the hotel of Inspector Wilkinson and Sergeant Hughes.

“I’m sorry,” said Mrs Pargeter to her dead husband. “I did get a bit carried away, and I took risks I shouldn’t have taken. You never wanted me to know anything about your working life, and that was a restriction I was happy to accept. But in the past weeks certain facts have been presented to me, which I know you wouldn’t want me to know.

“Well, don’t you worry about that at all. I will never mention any of those facts to another living soul. In fact, I will forget about them, totally erase them from my mind. It’ll be as if I had never known those details about you. We’ll go back to the relationship that we’ve always had.

“And in future,” she continued humbly, “I will see that this kind of thing never happens again. I will never again pry into your business affairs. And, though I did maybe go a little bit too far this time, it was in a good cause. I know you’d have wanted me to fulfil your promise to Veronica Chastaigne.

“That’s all I wanted to say, love. And to remind you, of course, how much I appreciate all you’ve done for me in the past, and all you manage to continue to do for me now. You know, what I said to Inspector Wilkinson was absolutely true. You are the love of my life. There will never be anyone else.”

Mrs Pargeter found there were tears in her eyes. She brushed them away, and when she looked back at the photograph of the late Mr Pargeter, she could see that the expression on his face had changed to one of forgiveness and deep, requited love.