Torsade Literary Space Meddlesome: Fourth Allied Forces
The Folly
Allied Forces
Meddlesome
Into a third hand slaps the baton
The host takes over an appointment of Fiona’s
Her noble aim to steer some entrepreneurial matrons
clear of ghoulish error
‘Error’ putting it kindly, he would have said himself
Of prying baldly into tragedy…more so, quite plausibly
for the sheer meddlesome titillation, the slumming through private lives
than for money
She calls herself Mrs. Balintrey, and is training a sister-in-law
and a neighbour
and has collected twenty from her circle
to be educated by an ‘authentic seer’
‘You’ll be the only gentleman in the room’ his hostess tells him
He seizes an uncouth advantage his profession affords
‘You are a widow.’
‘Oh, yes! No doubt, with your eye, the presence of Hamish is
…quite…’ She waves hands to encompass her sitting parlour,
strongly featuring a depressed armchair…
‘Indeed.’ He spares her the search for words. ‘Hamish was ever
your quiet supporter.’
This (reliable thing to say) touches the note.
She dabs, she beams, and begins to explain—
How the quest became her own. ‘They carry it inside themselves.
Shell shock, dear. The horrors of war. Men can’t bear…
To show themselves weak before their wives. Why we have so many of these…’
Hushed whisper. ‘Suicides.’
Shocking. He would like to consult with Hamish…but the sagging
seat and shining armrests say what they have said before
He is urged not to rise as the guests file in.
License again. ‘I shall begin with an anecdote, as demonstrating how
these matters affect high as well as low. The chemical plant…
You will recall, in Northumberland, whose director
Was of course Lord Atherleigh…’
A lovely audience member now offers exactly what this pause demands.
‘Oh, you don’t mean to say…not an accident?’
To her left she turns, and says to a friend, in a voice for the room’s benefit
‘Any wonder! That woman…the little foreign mannequin…
She took his son and vanished!’
Meddlesome
Snares
(2021, Stephanie Foster)