Dangerous Women

But shame would not bridle her tongue forever. Susa

After lunch there were chores to do, dishes, preparation for the evening meal, wood to collect and a little to cut. In the middle of the afternoon Kate a

Susa

“Of course,” Tonia agreed. “That’s an excellent idea.”

Susa

It was a little cooler than yesterday, but still pleasant, and the tide was even farther out, leaving them plenty of room to walk along the sand below the stones.

Tonia was smiling. Her shoulders were tense and she walked with purpose rather than ease, but still it was a great improvement on the morning. Perhaps she had gone as far as she meant to?

Susa

“Tonia?”

“Yes?” They had stopped walking and were staring at the tumbling water.

“Do you have to go on making such a point of Kate getting caught in the wave? Does it really matter?”

Tonia bit her lip thoughtfully, then she looked sideways back at Susa

“I didn’t mean anything so sweeping,” Susa

She did not know how to finish.

Tonia was smiling, not with warmth but with amusement, an i

“As if you’re deliberately trying to provoke her,” Susa

“Oh? Why on earth do you imagine I would want to do that?” Tonia asked. She looked absolutely i

Susa

“Because you’re grieving for Ralph, and you want to hurt her,” she said aloud. It was a compromise, half of the truth.

“My grieving for Ralph makes me want to hurt Kate?” Tonia asked. “Or are you suggesting his death has unhinged my mind?”

“No! Of course not!” Susa

“It might have,” Tonia replied, her eyes narrowed against the sharp, afternoon sun reflected off the white water. “After all, to have your husband sent to prison for five years, subjected to the vile life inside such a place, forced to mix with the worst people in our state, and then finally driven into a corner by them, and murdered like an animal-don’t you think that could be enough to drive some women out of their senses?”

She knew! It was a sick certainty twisting like a knife in the pit of Susa

Susa

Yes, probably. Ralph didn’t love her! He was arrogant enough to think a smile from him, a little passion that would pass for love, and she would do whatever he wanted. He would throw her away afterward, and she would be too mortified, too ashamed to tell anyone.

“Yes,” she said aloud, looking back at Tonia. “I suppose it might be enough to drive some people mad-but you’re not ‘some people.’ You won’t lose sight of reality. It was a tragedy Ralph was murdered. It wasn’t his fault, and it wasn’t Kate’s fault either. They got the man who did it, and he’s been executed.”

“Oh, yes,” Tonia agreed. “He’s dead.” There was a look of momentary, intense satisfaction in her face, almost joy. “Did I suggest it was Kate’s fault? I didn’t mean to. No, Kate would never have hurt Ralph, I know that. And she wouldn’t have wanted him in prison either.” Her voice was laden with meaning, her face hard, the wind whipping her dark hair across it.

They were twenty yards from where the breaking water reached, and as they stood there another sneaker wave came racing up the sand and stopped only a couple of feet short of Tonia’s shoes. She ignored it, as if she knew she were impervious to such things. There was something frightening in her calm, the sense of complete control in her eyes, her face, even the way her body braced against the wind.

Susa

Tonia was smiling at her, a cruel, half-excited smile that finally hid nothing. All her hurt and fury were in it, her knowledge of Kate and Ralph, and the way they had laughed and loved behind her back, and that Ralph had made the fatal mistake of trying the same trick, but without the heart, on Susa

How would Tonia do it? Poison in the food, or the water? A pillow over her face when she slept, and blame Kate for it? An accident of some sort, a slip in the bath, perhaps, and drown in the hot, soapy water? A fall somewhere, even over the cliff. One would not have to go more than ten or twelve feet onto the rocks; that would be enough.

Or the sea? Something to do with those magnificent, pounding waves with their terrifying, exhilarating beauty, and the power of a thousand miles of ocean behind them, sucking back under, dragging in with the undertow, those hungry, unpredictable sneaker waves that reached out farther than the rest, and pulled the unwary, even off dry land.

“You look as if you have been caught with your hand in the cookie jar, Susa

Susa

“Oh you did, my dear! You just couldn’t hold on to them!” Tonia answered. “No cookies for anyone now. But let’s go back and have supper. I promise you can have a share of everything!” She started to walk back along the sand, striding out easily, her arms loose at her sides and her steps graceful.