He gulped his drink, then looked sadly into the bottom of his glass. “I just want … I just wanted to do it all, you know. Explore the wilds of the world, bring back treasures …”
He sounded so lost, Saffron stood and gently guided him back to his chair. “Please don’t be upset. I’m sure before long she’ll be right as rain and be there to welcome you back from Brazil.”
“That’s just it,” he said with a crack in his voice. He sunk into his chair. “She’s not going to be there.”
“What do you mean?” Saffron asked cautiously.
“She gave me the papers just before the party,” Dr. Henry moaned. “Cynthia—she’s going to divorce me.”
Saffron fought to hide her shock, both at the news of divorce and Dr. Henry’s utter misery. To give herself something to do, she took up his glass to refill it. She walked back to Dr. Henry, who had buried his face in his hands. This was not how she’d expected this meeting to go at all.
He lifted his face from his hands and drained the glass in one. She patted his shoulder again. “She asked for a divorce just before the expedition?”
He squinted up at her, his handsome face crumpled. “She always stood by me, even though I treated her rotten. All those skirts …” With a groan, his hands hit his desk, and he stared straight ahead, looking shocked. “The Committee. That’s why she was here. Oh God.” He let his head hit the desk with another thunk.
“It’s all right, I’m sure she’ll come around after all this.” Saffron patted his shoulder awkwardly. “What about the College Committee?”
“What if …”—his voice cracked again—“she dies?”
He buried his face in his arms atop the desk, his enormous shoulders shaking. Saffron sat quietly as he sobbed. He was already drunk and crying; perhaps she could ask him a few more questions.
Saffron cleared her throat. “Did … did your wife know about Miss Ermine?”
“Eris?” He raised his head to look at her as if he’d only just recalled he wasn’t alone. His eyes were bloodshot. “I don’t know, I don’t know if she knew. She was furious during the party; she had that look … Did Eris—she talked to you?” Saffron lifted a shoulder noncommittally. “I’d hoped that … being gone for so long, she might forget. Eris too—that she’d forget about me. She’s so young.” His face disappeared into his arms again. Saffron sat in her chair, trying not to watch him cry. She thought she heard him mumbling “What have I done?,” but couldn’t quite hear him. After a moment, his voice grew stronger and she caught him say, “Just as well, everyone knows I’m a useless husband. If Cynthia does wake up, she’ll never forgive me.”
Wondering aloud, Saffron said, “It sounds like you care very much for your wife. Why not just be a useful husband?”
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” he mumbled, sinking lower and lower into his arms on his desk.
“Well, when she wakes up, you could apologize,” Saffron suggested.
Dr. Henry said nothing. In fact, he snored. Saffron sighed and looked around the room, wondering what had become of her meeting with a rumored rake. She carefully removed his glass from his slack grip and replaced it on the glass shelf. There was a loud snore behind her. Realizing her opportunity, she sidled over to the desk and managed to open his desk drawer to replace the letters she’d taken.
Gazing down at the snoring man, Saffron considered what he’d said. Mrs. Henry had gone to see the College Committee. Had she planned to reveal her husband’s liaison with Miss Ermine, possibly getting him kicked out of the university? Or perhaps just interrupt her husband’s plans to create a new branch of the history department? Dr. Henry knew of her meeting. Did that give him further motive for killing her?
Dr. Henry might be unfaithful, but she didn’t believe he had it in him to murder his wife. He was crushed about the divorce and Mrs. Henry’s continued incapacity. He’d been sobbing over her. Saffron tiptoed from the room, leaving the mess of a man sleeping on his desk.
She was just closing the door when Snyder came rushing into the room, directly to his desk. He sorted through a stack of papers and looked relieved to find one before he looked up and saw Saffron standing next to the door. “Miss Everleigh?”
“I was just dropping off the notes for Dr. Henry,” she said in a loud whisper. “I’m afraid he’s very upset. We spoke about his wife, and he was really quite overwrought. You might want to look in on him in a bit—he’s fallen asleep.”