Character relationships

[Arthur_Connelly]

I have three characters a husband, a wife, and the wife's female bodyguard/ lady's companion. The wife knows that her husband and her bodyguard were and are good friends. She doesn't know that they were lovers in their teenage years. The intimate relationship is over and done with. Does the wife have a right to know that it ever existed?

I'm asking for personal opinions. (Yes/No and Why)

Thank you.

 

[barrett1987]

Does she have a right to know? No - but then i think that the question is worded badly.
Should the wife find out? Hell yes. It will increase the conflict. Especially if the wife thinks they have been lying to her, still having an affair etc and the reader knows they are not. Then the reader will feel less sympathy for the wife.
Conflict, the more the merrier.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

On an entirely personal level no she doesn't have a right and nor does she have a right to be upset about it if it was before their relationship.

But like Barrett says if you can create conflict with it in a story go for it.

 

[Laeraneth]

I think it boils down to that there's a difference between hiding a previous relationship (ie, she's asked before, he's said "no, of course we didn't.") and simply not knowing they had a previous relationship.

So, it's hard to say she has a right to know about it, it may literally be something the husband and bodyguard have never thought in the last 10 years. But she would be rightfully upset if someone had been actively hiding the fact.

 

[Sapheron]

I don't think the wife has a right to know, as such. I also wouldn't be surprised, or particularly hold it against her, if she thought that she did have that right.

Laeraneth's point of simply not knowing or having it actively hidden also makes a strong point. Subterfuge on such a matter is unlikely to go well.

What sort of a culture are these people in? Such a situation between the patricians of Imperial Rome would have been considered vaguely amusing gossip at best. Between the aristocracy of Victorian England it would have been an unimaginable scandal.

 

[ratsy]

She DOES have a right to know. This woman is supposed to be guarding her...what if the bodyguard still had feelings for the husband...wouldn't it be easy to not protect her should something happen? Then the bodyguard would be free to be with the husband.

That is something a person would need to know not only because morally a husband and wife should communicate this kind of thing but because her safety could be affected by it.

 

[Sapheron]

Though surely if the bodyguard was willing to let the wife die she'd be morally dubious enough to not reveal the secret at the same time?

 

[Arthur_Connelly]

It takes place in a secondary world that's not unlike the Napoleonic era - in terms of technology and fashion. Culturally, things are a bit different. Society really wouldn't care that the husband and bodyguard were intimate, but they would wonder if it was still going on and laugh about it behind the wife's back.

The husband and bodyguard aren't hiding the fact that the relationship ever existed, but they aren't volunteering the information either. Neither of them are interested in rekindling the romance since it didn't work out the first time.

The wife is starting to suspect that the friendship between her husband and her bodyguard was intimate, but she hasn't asked about it yet in part because she's not sure she wants to hear the answer and certainly doesn't want to risk the possibility that they might lie to her about it.