Fortune's rocks_ a novel - Anita Shreve [156]
“Miss Biddeford,” Sears says, “where did you meet Dr. Haskell for the purpose of this sexual congress?”
“At his hotel.”
“This would be the Highland Hotel of Fortune’s Rocks?”
“Yes.”
“You went to his room?”
“Yes.
“This is a room he occasionally shared with his wife when she came to visit on weekends?”
“I believe so,” Olympia says, wondering how Sears can possibly know such facts.
“Would it be accurate to say you initiated these relations?”
Olympia thinks a moment. It is a question she has long pondered herself. “Yes,” she says finally.
“And you were aware Dr. Haskell had a wife and children?”
“Yes.”
“You had, in fact, met this wife and children and had dealings with them?”
“Yes.”
“They were, indeed, guests at your house from time to time?”
“Yes.”
“On how many occasions did you engage in sexual congress with Dr. Haskell?”
“I do not know.”
“More than a dozen?”
“Possibly.”
“Did you always go to the hotel?”
“No.”
“Where else did you go?”
“To a building site.”
“To a building site?” Sears asks incredulously. He turns away from Olympia and glances at Albertine and Telesphore.
“Dr. Haskell was building a cottage,” Olympia adds.
“At Fortune’s Rocks?”
“Yes.”
“And you engaged in sexual congress with him in this half-built cottage?” Sears asks.
“I have already said that I did.”
The tension of Sears’s inquisition is producing an excruciating headache at the back of Olympia’s neck. For how long will these terrible questions go on?
“Miss Biddeford, at the time you were engaging in these reprehensible acts, did you consider your actions wrong?”
“I considered it wrong to harm Catherine Haskell,” she says. “I did not consider it wrong to love John Haskell.”
“Catherine Haskell being Dr. Haskell’s wife?”
“Yes.”
“Do you now consider your conduct during that time to have been sinful?”
“No, I do not.”
“Truly, Miss Biddeford? Do you attend church services?”
“I have done so.”
“When was the last time you attended a church service?”
“Last June,” she says.
“I see. That would be eight months ago. Will you, if you are given custody of the boy, then consider your conduct sinful?”
“Your Honor,” says Tucker, again on his feet. “The witness cannot know how she will feel at some future date.”
“Mr. Sears.”
“Let me put the question another way, Your Honor. Miss Biddeford, how will you explain the circumstances of your son’s birth to him when he is of an age to understand such things — if, indeed, such unnatural acts can ever be understood?”
“I shall explain them in the way I would hope Albertine Bolduc would explain them. That is to say, I shall tell my son the truth.”
Shaking her head, Albertine whispers to her husband.
“Miss Biddeford, have you ever contacted the child?”
“No.”
“Have you shown any interest in his welfare?”
“I have put this petition forward.”
“In any other way?”
“I have had interest in the boy ever since he was born.”
“Have you indicated any such interest to any other person prior to moving to Fortune’s Rocks in July of last year?”
“No.”
“Have you ever met the child?”
“No.”
“Miss Biddeford, do you love John Haskell still?”
The question is swift and clean, a blade slicing to the bone. But Olympia does not hesitate in her answer. “Yes,” she says at once, and it is the first time during the proceedings that Addison Sears himself looks at all surprised. He takes a drink of water. “Can you possibly now foresee a day when you might repudiate, in the interests of your child, your love for John Haskell?” he asks.
Tucker is on his feet, but Olympia is answering the question. “No,” she says in a clear voice. “It will never be in the interest of the child to repudiate my love for John Haskell.”
“Your Honor, I have no further questions.”
• • •
Olympia meets her father during the noontime recess in a small chamber to one side of the courtroom. He falters and has to use his hands on a table edge to pull himself upright. It has been only eight months since Olympia last saw her father, but he seems scarcely familiar to her. His face