“Mrs. Ward” passed in the pony trap along with Peace, evidently going out for a drive. Mrs. Thompson, in a moment, was herself again.
“No,” she said, with decision, “I’ll not leave him. That woman’s in my place, and he would no doubt like me to leave; but I won’t—I’ll go back to my husband, and assert my rights.”
And back she went to be brutally abused as before, to bear upon her face and body the marks of his blows, and to endure all the mental agony which was now hers as the truth gradually oozed out about her husband’s real character.
Mrs. Thompson found too late what sort of a man she had so imprudently taken up with. About this time the real character of Peace was presented to her in all its hideous deformity. But she found it difficult and next to impossible to detach herself from the cunning and cruel rascal who held her in bondage. It was not possible for her to be an inmate of the house in the Evlina-road, without having some inkling of the goings on in that delectable establishment. Numberless boxes were coming and going. Thompson or Peace was absent at strange times. On the evenings he was absent he returned at all hours, nobody knew when or how, but with his return was associated an accession of worldly goods.
How these were obtained those around him could make a shrewd guess, but neither of his housekeepers had the temerity to ask any question.
Mrs. Long, who was in a great measure Mrs. Thompson’s confidant, declared that up to two months before No. 5 became famous, her friend Mrs. Thompson had no guilty knowledge of Peace’s nefarious doings. We are, however, of a different opinion.
We find it impossible to believe in her innocence, particularly in the face of her flight and continued concealment out of the way of the police; but she managed to make many people in Peckham believe it, and we are only repeating the version of their story as it relates to her.
They believe that Peace got to know that Mrs. Thompson was uneasy, and redoubled his vigilance over her.
This is likely enough. He certainly, according to credible authority, treated her at times in a most brutal manner.
Mrs. Peace or Mrs. Ward, as she was called at this time simultaneously, became more than ever watchful over her charge.