The Husband's Secret

Tess and her mother go to Tess’s childhood school, St. Angela’s, to enroll Liam. They arrive as Sister Ursula’s funeral is ending. As they’re entering the school, Cecilia intercepts them. Tess’s mother, Lucy, says that Cecilia makes a “fortune” selling Tupperware. Cecilia’s bubbly, chatty nature is draining for Tess, whose shyness and social anxiety are in stark contrast. She marvels that Cecilia not only remembers her but knows her son’s name. They discover that Liam and Polly will be in the same class, and Cecilia invites Liam and Tess to Polly’s party. Tess finds Cecilia “highly irritating” but admits “her social skills were impeccable” (100). The conversation turns to Rachel Crowley, who Tess learns is the school secretary. Cecilia and Lucy speak in careful tones, though Lucy seems to be relieved to hear that Rachel has a beloved grandson. When Cecilia leaves, Tess asks her mother about Rachel. Lucy reminds Tess of a teen girl who was found murdered with rosary beads—Rachel’s daughter, Janie Crowley.

Tess and Lucy meet with Rachel to enroll Liam in school. Rachel can tell that they have Janie on their minds because of the overly solicitous way they’re behaving. She tells them that Rob and Lauren are taking Liam to New York to live for two years, but instead of responding enthusiastically about what a wonderful opportunity it is, Lucy exclaims, “Well that just takes the cake!” (104). Rachel is surprised but gratified when Lucy apologizes and explains that it seems unfair for Rachel to lose her grandson for so long after having already lost her daughter and husband. The school principal, Trudy McDuff, comes along. She immediately turns her attention to Liam without introducing herself to Tess and Lucy. Rachel thinks that Trudy’s lack of “interest in grown-ups” will someday be her “downfall” (105). Trudy quickly puts Liam at ease and persuades Tess to enroll him immediately so that he can participate in the Easter egg hunt, rather than waiting until after Easter.

While they’re still in Rachel’s office, Connor Whitby, the school’s physical education teacher, stops by. Rachel flinches and thinks back to the time when her daughter was murdered. Connor Whitby was a suspect at the time because he appeared in a photo in Janie’s album. Rachel remembers that the detective, Rodney Bellach, said Connor had “lies in his eyes” (107). When Connor sees Tess, he lights up. They dated years ago, before Tess left Sydney for Melbourne. Tess’s father calls when they get back to the car. She answers, and they have an awkward conversation. Tess wonders if her relationship with her father would have been better if her parents hadn’t divorced. 

Cecilia drives her daughters Polly and Esther to their afterschool activities. In the car, the girls chat about their disparate interests. Esther lectures on the events around the Berlin Wall going up. Polly announces that she no longer wants her party to be a pirate party, a subject that Cecilia thinks should not be worse to her than the German deaths Esther has been telling them about, but which certainly causes her more difficulty in the moment. The conversation turns to John-Paul and his return. Polly remarks, “Daddy looks at Isabel in a funny way…he looks at her like it’s hurting his eyes. Like he’s angry and sad at the same time. Especially when she wears that new shirt” (117).

Cecilia immediately starts to interrogate her memory for signs of sexual abuse but finds it impossible to believe that John-Paul would hurt or molest their daughters. Esther says that she doesn’t think John-Paul looks at Isabel oddly, but that she did catch him crying in the shower recently. Cecilia thinks about another incident, John-Paul’s suicide attempt in his first year of university, and his later claim that he had just needed a “good woman” to alleviate his anguish. All of this information makes Cecilia reach a tipping point: the way he may look at Isabel, the crying in the shower, the lack of sex, and the lying about something. Cecilia decides she is going to read the letter that night after the girls are in bed. 

Mary, Tess’s mother’s sister and Felicity’s mother, comes over to visit, despite being told not to by Lucy. Lucy initially refuses to answer the door but lets Mary in once she starts beating on the windows and Liam asks why Aunt Mary isn’t allowed inside. Tess’s Uncle Phil hugs her and apologizes, saying he’s ashamed of his daughter. Mary insists that Felicity had no choice. She says that love just strikes and claims tearfully that Will and Felicity are heartbroken over having hurt Tess. She also says that she’s been looking through photo albums at pictures of young Tess and Felicity together and lamenting their previous closeness. She says, “I can’t bear it if you two become estranged from each other,” and Tess replies, “I think you might have to bear it” (132).

Rachel attends a Tupperware party at her friend Marla’s house. She tried to get out of it by claiming she had a “permanent ‘get out of party card’” due to her daughter’s murder (133), but Marla convinced her by musing about how Janie would probably have loved Tupperware. At the party, Rachel sees Cecilia in action as a Tupperware consultant. Cecilia expertly schmoozes the crowd, and Rachel finds herself having a great time. At the end of the party, all of the women are drunk. Cecilia offers Rachel a ride home rather than having her take a cab or inconvenience Marla’s husband.

On the ride, Rachel is surprised to find Cecilia quiet. She is much more accustomed to Cecilia’s “reliable, soothing stream of conversation about raffles, carnivals, newsletters and everything else pertaining to St. Angela’s” (139). They talk briefly about Cecilia’s daughters. Rachel says that she saw Isabel, the oldest, recently, and that she reminded Rachel of her daughter, Janie. She immediately regrets saying this, afraid that it will disturb Cecilia to have her daughter compared to a girl who was strangled. The chapter ends with Cecilia saying, “I have just one memory of your daughter” (141). 

This chapter picks up at the same moment, but from Cecilia’s perspective. She worries that saying she has a memory of Janie will upset Rachel. She thinks about how she feels uncomfortable around Rachel: “She felt trivial, because surely the whole world was trivial to a woman who had lost a child in such circumstances. She always wanted to somehow convey to Rachel that she knew she was trivial” (142). However, she’d once read in a magazine that grieving parents appreciated hearing people’s memories of their children. She explains that she didn’t actually know Janie, as Janie was four years ahead of her in school. On the day of the school carnival, each school “house” had to march around the oval of the PE field. Cecilia took the marching very seriously, but she tripped and fell, which made the children behind her crash into her. She was devastated, but Janie came over, brushed her off, and whispered, “It doesn’t matter. It’s only stupid marching” (144).

Rachel thanks Cecilia and says that she had a good time at the party. She only now realizes that she might be a little drunk and says it’s good she didn’t drive, as she might have killed someone. When she says she should get out more often, Cecilia perks up. She invites Rachel to Polly’s pirate party. Rachel protests that Polly wouldn’t want her crashing the party, but Cecilia insists that Rachel will know a lot of people there and that she could bring her grandson. Cecilia drops off Rachel and drives home. She remembers her determination to read the letter that night but is torn over her decision again. Things seemed so strange and dire during the car ride with the girls, but they went back to normal afterwards, and she isn’t sure she can claim the same sense of urgency that drove her earlier decision. She pulls into her driveway just as John-Paul gets out of a cab, home three days early.