In the Still of the Night

“I must take Addie to see her room, Mrs. Ethridge. There’s lemonade in the library, if you’d like some.“
    “How refreshing so early in the year,“ Mrs. Ethridge said. “You must tell me how you get lemons. And Addie, dear, we really must make time for a good old gossip.”
    Lily led the way to the little room she’d picked for Addie. It was rather plain, with simple furniture and a brightly colored quilt on the bed. A small bath and a large closet with a hall between them joined this room with Mrs. Ethridge’s. Lily had chosen it especially for Addie as she knew Ad-die didn’t like a lot of girlish clutter.
    “It’s your room anytime you can get away to visit, Addie. I thought it suited you perfectly.”
    Addie turned to her, her face pale. “What is that woman doing here!“ she exclaimed.
    “Mrs. Ethridge? She invited herself. She said you told her about the house party.“
    “How dare she use my name that way! I’ve not spoken casually to her for years. She must have heard that I was coming here from someone else.”
    “Oh, dear...“
    “I’m sorry, Lily, but I must leave. I can’t bear to be in the same state, much less the same house with her.“
    “Addie, whatever is the matter. She seems so nice in a frou-frou way. Please don’t leave.”
    Addie turned her back, crossed her arms and stood silently for a long moment.
    “All right, Lily. I’ve been looking forward to our visit and I don’t want to disappoint you. Most important, I have too much pride to let her run me off.”
    Lily took Addie’s arm and led her to the bed, where they sat down next to each other. “Addie, tell me what this is about.”
    Addie sighed. “To sum it up, she stole my beau and killed him.“
    “What!“
    “Oh, it’s more complicated than that. I don’t know why it would interest anyone else, but it’s no secret. When I was thirty and already an old maid, I met Anthony Ethridge. He was older than I and had a bad war wound. A piece of shrapnel lodged near his heart and couldn’t be operated on for fear of dislodging it in the surgery. Anyway, he had to take things easy and had applied himself to reading everything he could get his hands on.“
    “An appealing trait to the likes of us,“ Lily said. Addie nodded. “Very appealing. I fell madly in love with him. Silly at the great age of thirty, I know. I’d already been teaching for years and liked it, but I wanted to marry. I could have ‘done’ for him. I could cook, clean, pluck chickens, fix engines, put up shingles. I could have been the perfect wife. And he agreed. He was aging, lonely. I thought he was in love with me. Maybe he was. He bought me a ring, found a nice little house near the school so I could go on teaching, and we set a date to marry.“
    “Where does the woman downstairs come into this?“
    “Between setting the date and getting married. She moved in next door to the little house I was fixing up. Anthony, being in poor health, couldn’t help, but he came and sat and watched. Lorna had a lot of free time on her hands and spent it vamping him.“
    “And he fell for it?“
    “Of course. I couldn’t really blame him. I was plain; she was beautiful and alluring. I was competent; she was charming. I was younger than he and she was of his generation. It’s not as much fun for a man to watch a woman hang a new window as it is to flirt with a charmer. I know that now. I was too stupid to see it then. Anyway, he broke off our engagement and married her. I think he felt as awful about it as I did, but he was enchanted with her. She’d magicked him.“
    “How did he die? What do you mean about her killing him?“
    “It was three years later. They were still living in ‘my’ wedding house. Anthony was failing. I’d see him in town in a wheelchair. But Lorna was apparently tired of being a nurse by then and took off for a nice long trip to Europe. She’d been widowed before and had tons of money. She didn’t even hire anyone to take care of him. If I’d known, I’d have been there for h—”
    Addie put her hands to her face and made a horrible sobbing noise. Lily gave her a pat on the shoulder and went to get Addie a glass of water from the bathroom while she pulled herself together.
    “Here, take this.”
    Addie sniffed and raised her head. “It’s all right, Lily. I’m all right. I did nothing wrong. Maybe Lorna did nothing wrong. He might have insisted he could get along by himself and refused to have help. It was