Once And Always

Chapter 26

Tee gazed at him with affection. "You are one of the kindest men I've ever known, Captain."

"Then why don't you just imagine I'm your father and talk to me in that way?"

Many people, including young men and women, had confided all sorts of things to Dr. Jarujitranon with very little embarrassment and no shame, Tee knew. And if he was ever going to understand Tae, he had to talk to Captain Mew.

"Very well," he said, and was relieved when he was thoughtful enough to turn his back and busy himself with the preparations for tea. It was easier to talk to his back. "Actually, I came here to ask you if you were certain you told me everything you knew about Tae. But to answer your question, Tae stayed home last night for the first time since I last saw you. He's been going to Bangkok, you see, to visit his ... ah ..." He drew a long breath and said firmly, "His paramour."

Captain Mew's back stiffened, but he did not turn around. "What makes you think a thing like that?" he said, slowly taking down a bowl of sugar.

"Oh, I'm certain of it. The papers hinted at it yesterday morning. Tae was gone all night, but when he returned I was at breakfast and I'd just read the paper. I was upset—"

"I can imagine."

"And I nearly lost my temper, but I tried to be reasonable. I told him I realized that considerate husbands kept mistresses, but that I thought he ought to be discreet and—"

Captain Mew lurched around, gaping at him with a bowl of sugar in one hand and a pitcher of milk in the other. "You told him that you thought it was considerate of him to keep a mistress, but that he ought to be discreet?"

"Yes. Shouldn't I have said that?"

"More importantly, why did you say it? Why did you even think it?"

Tee heard the criticism in his voice and stiffened slightly. "Well —Khun Janean explained that in Bangkok it is the custom for considerate husbands to have—"

"Khun Janean?" he burst out in disbelief. "Khun Janean?" he repeated as if he couldn't believe his ears. "Khun Janean is a spinster, how could she know anything about marriage? Tae used to keep her at Khon Kaen to help look after Nong'Tin so that when he was away, Nong'Tin would have a loving female with him. Janean was loving, all right, but the lady almost misplaced the baby one day. You asked a woman like that for advice on keeping a husband?"

"I didn't ask her, she offered the information," Tee replied defensively, flushing. "And don't talk to khun Janean like that! She was very kind to me."

"I'm sorry for shouting at you, child," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Where I came from, a spouse takes a skillet to his husband's head if he goes to another man! It's much simpler, more direct, and far more effective, I'm sure. Please go on with what you were trying to tell me. You said you confronted Tae—"

"I'd really rather not continue," Tee said warily. "I don't think I should have come. Actually, it was a dreadful idea. I only hoped you could explain to me why Tae has become so distant since our wedding—"

"What," Captain Mew said tensely, "do you mean by 'distant'?"

"I don't know how to explain it."

He poured tea into two cups and picked them up. "Nong'Tee," he said, frowning as he turned, "are you trying to tell me he doesn't come to your bed very often?"

Tee's ears flushed and stared at his hands. "Actually, he hasn't been there since our wedding night—although I greatly feared that, after he broke the door down the next morning when I locked it—"