Unable to resist the urge, he chuckled, “No, baby. He didn’t just show up from whatever afterlife he was in to watch you sleep. Archibald said he came to show me examples of why he had to punish Emma.” Susan gasped and looked as though she would speak, but Justin stopped her by raising his hand. “I know what you are going to say and it’s probably the same thing I said to him; that he ‘Punished her to death.’ He went on to say that you are very much like Emma in both your temperament and personality. His exact words were, ‘she is willful and disobedient.’”

Susan’s face turned crimson with anger and she sputtered out, “Ohh! Just let that maniac show his face to me! I’ll show him ‘willful and disobedient’!” Crossing her arms under her breasts, she slouched down in the chair and irritably muttered, “Well, if Archibald thinks I am ‘willful and disobedient’ like Emma, I take it as a compliment.” Justin wisely did not laugh at the way Susan grimaced and sneered every time she said, “willful and disobedient,” as though the words themselves tasted sour on her tongue.

“May I continue? Or perhaps you aren’t interested in hearing about the two events that Archibald showed me.” Justin retrieved a pad of paper and pencil from one of the numerous unpacked boxes that remained in the kitchen. “He also showed me the cause of your mysterious stain,” he whispered, tempting his wife with that information like a worm on a hook and returned to his seat, opened the pad to a blank page, then began to sketch absently.

“Well?” Susan asked a few moments later, when he didn’t speak again. “Are you going to tell me or not?” Her excitement to learn the truth was evident in her voice.

Without taking his eyes off the paper, Justin continued his tale. “To begin with, Archibald showed me their wedding day. The ceremony took place in the greenhouse and Emma was miserable. Although I was shown the majority of what happened during the day, the important event happened first.” He used the pad of his left thumb to smudge a line, then he paused to sip his rapidly cooling coffee before continuing.

Susan refilled his coffee after he sat the mug down and Justin returned to his sketch and story. “I was standing alone in the front parlour and I could hear arguing coming through the slightly ajar doorway to the next room. Archibald strode into the house and hearing the voices himself, he moved silently to the doorway and listened.” He looked around the table and unable to find what he wanted, Justin stood and returned to the box where he had obtained the sketch pad. Rummaging through the contents he mumbled, “Aha,” pulled his hand out holding a small pencil sharper and returned to the table, sharpening the pencil as he walked. “Emma was staring out the window while her father, Buford, was preparing for the ceremony. She was crying her eyes out and trying to convince him not to force her to marry Archibald. But the inconsiderate ass kept talking about responsibility and honor, although he meant ‘his’ honor. Emma finally confided to her father that she loved another, and all she got was the back of his fist across her face.”

“My God, how could he? Poor Emma, her heart must have been breaking, being forced to marry a man she didn’t love and to top it off, her father strikes her for speaking her mind.” Susan brushed a tear from her cheek.