dad couldn’t have made the crackling bread any better.”
Maude put a mug of black coffee in front of her along with cream and sugar in silver containers. “I’m glad you like it.” She paused. “How long ago did you lose your parents, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I don’t mind,” Ida said. “Please, sit down. I know you’ve been on your feet all morning. Wouldn’t you like a cup of coffee, too?”
Maude smiled. “Yes, I would.”
She got herself a cup and sat down.
“My father died of a heart attack when he was still young,” Ida said between bites of the delicious meal. “He was in the doctor’s office at the time, and nothing they did could save him. My mother was devastated. Me, too. She stayed alive just for me, but she missed my father every day of her life. When I was eighteen, she went on a cruise. I was working at a business in Denver that my first husband owned.” Her face tautened, just a little. “Somehow, Mama fell overboard. They never found her.”
“That would be far worse than if they had,” Maude said quietly. “It must have been hard on you.”
“I was very sheltered,” she replied. “I’d never even dated much. None of the men I knew ever thought about marriage and children. They just wanted to have a good time. I can’t abide superficial people,” she added quietly. She smiled wistfully. “My first husband was all sympathy and comfort. He married me. I thought it was odd that he didn’t, well, want to sleep with me. He said that we would be soul mates, but not physically.”
“Goodness,” Maude exclaimed.
“I’d never indulged, you see, so I didn’t really have those feverish urges people talk about.” She sighed. “He was a good and kind man. He spoiled me, took care of me, pampered me. I adored him. We had five wonderful years together, just as friends. Then one day he left a note for me, went to the top floor of his building, onto the roof and jumped off.” She swallowed, hard. It was a painful memory. “His lover, a younger man with an attitude problem, came to the funeral and pretended to grieve. I had him shown to the door. Then he sued for damages, saying my husband had mistreated him.” Her dark blue eyes were spitting fire. “You know, corporate attorneys are very good at civil law. They pinned him to the wall and stuck him with court costs after he lost the lawsuit. He went on to a new lover, who, sadly, killed him a few months later.” She looked at Maude. “I didn’t grieve. Not at all. My poor husband!”
Maude was thunderstruck. She’d never known anyone who wouldn’t have been raging about a man keeping that sort of secret from her. And here was Ida, with her scandalous reputation, furious because her husband had been hurt.
“You didn’t suspect?” Maude asked gently.
Ida shook her head. She finished her meal and sat back to drink the strong coffee. “I heard other women talk about their husbands, of course, but I had no practical experience.” Her eyes twinkled, just a little. “From some of the things I heard, maybe it wasn’t so bad that my husband wasn’t interested in me that way. Of course, then I was widowed, and I found Bailey Trent.” She sipped coffee, her face showing the anguish of saying that name aloud.
“A bad husband?”
Ida’s eyes, haunted, met the housekeeper’s. “You never know what a man really is until you’re behind a closed door with him.” She swallowed, hard. “Bailey was a sadist, and I didn’t know. He swept me off my feet. I’d had five years of no physical contact, and he kissed me coming and going. He was a little rough, but I put that down to his hunger for me. Was I wrong!” She shivered. “He was brutal. I was so afraid of him. He was insanely jealous. I smiled at another man and he turned around and threw me off the first level of a parking garage. If I hadn’t landed in grass, I guess I’d be dead or brain-damaged. I hit in such a way that only my back and hip and upper thigh were impacted. It still took surgery and a long time in physical therapy to get me back on my feet.” She laughed. “I limp when the weather gets stormy. They did a partial hip replacement, and I’ve got a metal rod and pins down my