Tess’s What Ifs

 

Twice he said to me up there on the rick

that I’d never mentioned my husband’s name.

What if I had, told him he was the son 

of Parson Clare, so instrumental in his ‘conversion’?

What if I’d told Angel that the man who 

seduced me was the one his father ran into?

 

It’s as good as asking how it would have been

had Tringham held his tongue, or if Prince hadn’t died,

or Angel danced with me at Marlott.

I’ll never know now, as I never knew

on the day I set out for Talbothays

that I had just over two years left to live.