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Chapter 12: The Keeping of a Good Wife
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2024-10-29 19:42:56She sipped delicately at her tea, her back straight, her hair immaculate, her winning and courteous smile false. But still, there was nothing quite as lovely as a hot cup of tea in the morning.
Little joys kept Liziwe sane, and this was one such pleasure. She kept them, and counted them, and bitterly guarded them: a spoonful of honey, snuck from the scullery in the dead of night. The hot lapping tongues of water that caressed her skin as she laundered the lies clean. The secret vengeance she wreaked upon her husband in her mind, slow and convoluted, as she lay in her narrow cot of a bed. And, of course, tea. Good, brown tea, that she enjoyed with a simpering smile to disguise the fact that inside, she was screaming. In short, Liziwe Matiwane was going mad.
‘‘I do hope you will excuse me, my dear; I will be out late tonight. Don’t wait up,’’ Andile beamed at her genially from across the long table, his eyes twinkling
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"Liziwe!You there, hold her!Five shillings to the wretch that catches that ungrateful hag!""What did he say?""Eh?""'Over there, the man at the window! Hesaid five shillings to the lucky bastard that catches her!"Little pattering feet pounded in a frenzy of sudden surprised movement. The sounds of four became six, six became eight, and the tykes passed the intoxicating message from one shrieking maw to the next; a dangling fish, rapidly torn to enthusiastic scraps."Five shillings! Five, he says!She ran as though her very life depended on it- which was, the thought flitted through her mind, not entirely far from the truth. Her boots slapped at the pavement and muck, an abhorrentsquelchringing in her ears with every knoll of filth she plunged through. But there was no time to stop, no time to think: her lungs burned with an abominable inferno that worked its aching way from the inside out, squee
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He glanced at her, snuffing at the cold air through his corpulent red nose. "I did," he replied matter-of-factly, fluttering the paper over his head. "What's it to you, my dear? Got a mystery that needs solving? Lost your lover, perhaps?" He leered down at her, then cupped his hand around his mouth, shouting, "Papers! Paaaapers! Get your papers here!"She tugged at his sleeve again, in a panic that throbbed desperately through her veins. "Sir,please! If you would- where can I find Mr Edward Skweyiya?"He dropped his arm then and looked directly at her, his face breaking into an incredulous smirk. Bending down to have a better look at her, he chortled; a short, breathy thing that was rank of garlic and goat meat. Barely containing her disgust, she raised her voice, asking once more, "Mr Edward Skweyiya!Where can I findMr. Edward Skweyiya!"He straightened, and guffawed down at her, wiping a frayed coat sleeve cursorily across his n
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She could not help it; her brow furrowed, her lips parted in a chortle as she exclaimed, "Come now, Inspector, ascoundrel?I grant you, he is an arrogant man, and undoubtedly an egotist to boot, but scoundrel is hardly the word I would choose!"The inspector stood abruptly, his eyes flashing furiously down at her. "Madam, he said stiffly, the coarse hairs of his beard bristling, "I did not present myself to discuss matters that arebeneath me.I came to have a look at the lady who has caused us so much anxiety this afternoon. I was led to believe that you were some lovely young thing, but I find the same could be said of any harlot that spends an evening within these walls. Now, if you would,Miss Matiwane," and he extended his hand, white and hefty and possessive of all the subtleties of a meat cleaver, "I will have the two pounds and six pence."Liziwe stared at him incredulously, impati
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