The Unsuspected by Charlotte Armstrong Read Free Book Online

the marriage certificate," he said slowly, "and I imagine you . . . lost it"
     
    "No papers?" she sneered.
     
    "Some," he said. "Look here, Tyl. Don't—hate me. Don't. I'm not trying— Please, can't we try to be a little bit friendly about this?"
     
    He really did look upset and distressed, but she said coldly, "I think we'd better go to the station."
     
    "Very well," he said.
     
    She started toward the door. She stopped. "What papers?" she demanded. He shook his head. "I want to know how you managed to deceive Grandy!" she cried.
     
    His face went black with emotion, suddenly. "Look here" he said roughly, "you hurt. You don't seem to know it, but I'll be damned if I see why I have to ... be hurt. Either you listen to my entire story, let me tell you the whole thing, all that happened, all you've forgotten—which seems to me the fair thing for you to do, by the way—or well say no more about it m see you to the train. And good-by. You can divorce me, get an annulment, do whatever you like. Ignore the whole thing. I'm not likely," he stated bitterly, "to want to marry anyone else for a while."
     
    Mathilda hesitated. She thought, I don't understand. Her mind rebelled at its own confusion. It seemed to her that this man had been forcing her into confusion, and she wanted to fight back. She wanted to feel clear, to understand better. It was a way of fighting. She went back and sat down in her chair.
     
    "Very well. Tell me," she said.
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    "You were, as I said, standing near the grillroom. I saw you. I made up my mind to have a try at picking you up." He was speaking bitterly, bluntly and fast. "It worked. You were lonely and upset. You needed to talk to someone. We went into a corner of the bar and you did talk. You told me all about Oliver and Althea and what had happened to you. You were hurt, then; so hurt, my dear, so heartsore." His voice warmed, "I don't suppose you
    realized at all what was happening to me. I don't suppose you really saw me that Sunday night.
     
    "I was someone to listen. A stranger, who wouldn't care, you thought, who wouldn't tell. Who'd listen and be sympathetic, and go away taking some of your trouble with him just by virtue of having listened. It didn't work out that way, because I fell in love, and I am a very persistent fellow and I would not go away. I'm afraid I hung around. We were together Monday. Had lunch. Roamed around. In the evening, we went back to our corner in the bar. This time, I talked. I told you I was in the Air Force, but I was being let out. I told you quite a bit. You listened. I wonder if you heard."
     
    Mathilda closed her eyes, squeezed them tight. But when she opened them, he was still there, still talking.
     
    Tuesday," he said, "well, on Tuesday, in the morning, you said you'd marry me."
     
    "Why?"
     
    He took her up quickly. "Why you said you'd marry me, I . . .don't know. You never said you felt anything for me but just . . .comfortable in my presence. It was one of those half-cold-blooded things. I knew I was getting you on a rebound. And, Tyl, darling, I knew perfectly well that there was a little bit of a nasty human wish for revenge in your heart."
     
    She frowned, but her heart had jumped in surprise.
     
    "Oh, yes, that was obvious," he went on. "But I was going to get you on any terms at all. So I was pretty unscrupulous. Who am I to take a high moral tone? And you—honey, it was babyish, but I understood, still understand. It wasn't so much revenge on Oliver, the
    poor sap, but on Althea, the louse." He grinned.
     
    "I—I see " said Mathilda dazedly. He leaned forward. His eyes searched her face. "No, no," she said. "No, I don't mean that I remember. It just sounds— It didn't happen, but you make it sound as if— I can see it might have."
     
    He said, with an unfathomable expression in his dark eyes, "Thank you, Tyl." He went on, "At ten in the morning, Wednesday, we were married."
     
    "It can't be done!" she