You will remember that you spent a holiday with me here about three years ago and met two or three friends of mine who lived nearby. There has been an interesting development amongst them, which I should like you to see, so come as soon as you can.
— Miles Pennoyer's invitation to Jerome Latimer
The last of Margery Lawrence's Miles Pennoyer short stories, The Case of the Double Husband was published in 1971 as part of August Derleth's Dark Things horror anthology.
In this tale, Pennoyer invites his friend and faithful chronicler Jerome Latimer to join him on vacation in Devonshire to observe a mutual acquaintance of theirs who has undergone a remarkable transformation. Ted Eliot was once a boorish bachelor — but following the death of his best friend George Arnold, he's taken on George's decidedly patrician taste and habits. Ted is now married George's widow Grace, who has her own ideas about what inspired the turnabout...
Unmarked spoilers below.
Tropes in The Case of the Double Husband:
- Backup from Otherworld: Implied — Ted is able to bargain with the "Wise Ones"/ "Those on the Other Side"/ "Elder Brothers" (i.e. psychically powerful beings who have some sway over who passes into the afterlife and who must reincarnate to pay their karmic debts) to offer his own body for George's soul to inhabit. George's body will perish, but his soul will live on in Ted's body. Ted's soul will pass on into the afterlife having repaid a millennia-old debt to George."...in his sleep-state Ted Eliot, who has loved these two very greatly and companioned them through many incarnations, spent long in discussing the impasse with those Wise Ones—our Elder Brothers, whom we meet when outside our earth-bodies—and he saw a chance that would allow him not only to do a great service to humanity, but also expiate a grave wrong that he did to Grace and George in one of their earlier lives together."
- Black Magic: Discussed, overlaps with White Magic — Jerome was under the impression that body-swapping is an evil sort of magic, but Pennoyer corrects him. Magic is magic, and whether it's good "White Magic" or bad "Black Magic" depends on the purposes for which it's used:"But Pen," I cried. "I've heard of the possibility of body-swapping, if you'll forgive my crude way of putting it—but I thought it was only Black Magic stuff!"
"It's magic all right," said Pennoyer, "but don't forget that all magic is, so to speak, an inert Force—I mean, it can't be in itself either good or bad. It's neuter. It can be used for good or for ill—just as electricity can warm you and cook your dinner or kill you dead—it's the same force either way. It's Black if it's used for evil purposes, and White if it's used for good." - The Case of...: …the Double Husband.
- Dad the Veteran: Zig-Zagged and Downplayed — George fought in the second world war and was left paralyzed from the waist down by an injury that eventually killed him. Though his body died, his soul lives on in Ted's body. By the end of the story, Grace and George-in-Ted's-Body have conceived a child.
- Demonic Possession: Overlaps with Willing Channeler. As George's physical form grew too weak to sustain him, Ted willingly gave up his body for George's soul to inhabit. This allowed George to live on while Ted's soul passed into the afterlife.
- I See Dead People: Grace has minor "mediumistic" abilities. This is how she "saw" the moment when George's soul swapped places with Ted's."But I expect your own psychic instinct helped you to recognise me as, shall we say, a fellow-student a little further along the way? Did you know you were mediumistic?"
She nodded.
"It's in the family. My mother was a natural sensitive and I've inherited it." - I Should Write a Book About This: Zig-Zagged — Pennoyer knows that Jerome enjoys writing down his adventures and even suggests the title for this particular tale:"Of course there's a story," he said, "and a very amazing story it is, and of course I'll tell you... You can call it, if you like, The Case of the Double Husband!"
- Internal Homage: Grace recognized "Mr. Pen" as the famous Miles Pennoyer because she's acquainted with the characters of another Miles Pennoyer story, The Woman on the Stairs:"You see, I used to know Dolly Forster very well before she married Arnold Latimer, and when I run up to London to do some shopping... we sometimes arrange to meet. She told me about how you saved Pamela from that terrible Woman on the Stairs. Naturally, she didn't know how you did it, but she was full of you and your extraordinary powers."
- Love Triangle: In their past lives in Ancient Rome, George and Ted competed for Grace's hand in marriage. Ted killed George because he couldn't stand the thought of his friend marrying the woman they both loved. In their current incarnations both men are still in love with Grace, but Ted values his friendship with George above his love for Grace.
- Madonna Archetype: Downplayed — Grace's purpose in the world (as stated by the "Wise Elders") is to give birth to a "a great soul whose influence will mean much to this troubled world" and to raise this child with George. She doesn't know the specifics yet, only that a "great work" is expected of her. She eagerly accepts the responsibility.
- Messianic Archetype: Downplayed — The reason George's soul is able to remain in the realm of the living (inside Ted's body) is because the "Wise Elders" deem it necessary that he and Grace conceive and raise "a child whose body will be the earthly house of a great soul whose influence will mean much to this troubled world." The machinations of supernatural beings ensuring the birth of a son to a certain woman (and that the son be raised by a certain man) echoes the mythology surrounding the conception of Jesus.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: George and Ted's past lives as Ancient Roman soldiers saw them as rivals for Grace's hand in marriage. Grace favored George, and Ted secretly killed him to remove the competition.."Ted and George were Roman soldiers in the days when Rome stood at the height of her glory—George the elder and Ted the younger—and they both loved Grace. She favoured George, and Ted, though he loved the older man, could not bear the thought of his possessing the woman he was mad for—and at last, driven by desire and jealousy, he yielded to temptation and killed George when their Company was out in a foray against some marauding tribes on the borders of Lybia [sic]."
- Mystical Pregnancy: Downplayed, though it overlaps with Madonna Archetype and Messianic Archetype — Grace and George were reincarnated in their most recent lives in order to conceive and raise a child that will greatly influence the world. When George's body died, his soul was shuffled over into Ted's body to carry out "The Great Work," and Pennoyer happily reports to Jerome at the end of the story that Grace is already pregnant and will give birth to the child early next year. It would seem that the physical bodies of the parents that conceive the child are inconsequential in the equation; only the souls in them truly matter.
- Noble Male, Roguish Male: George is the "noble" male, an intelligent and sensitive aesthete with an appreciation for literature, classical music, and culture. He wore understated clothes in neutral colors and enjoyed antiquing. Ted is the "rogue", a lazy bachelor with a desperately messy home and tastes that run to the lowest common denominator. He prefers loudly patterned jackets and ties (when he isn't wearing raggedy old flannel pants with an "open-necked shirt"), loves to gamble on sports and dog races, and the only "literature" he reads is cheap paperback mysteries. George drank wine and mixed cocktails, Ted drinks beer or whisky sodas. George was a master of polite conversation while Ted is abrasive and argumentative.He [George] loved music, books and poetry with a passion, and possessed a wonderful collection of records of classical music; he was also something of a connoisseur of antiques... How such a fellow, gentle, diffident, artistic, should have made an efficient soldier I could not conceive, yet apparently he had made a very brave one; but how he could have wanted as a friend bluff, hearty Ted Eliot, who had no ear for music or poetry, preferred "whodunits" to any other form of reading, and by way of amusement liked going to football matches, races, or the dogs better than anything else, was even more puzzling!
- Out-of-Character Alert: After George's death, Ted begins to act strangely. His normally boorish behavior and low-class tastes start to align with George's — this is what clues Grace in to the fact that George's soul has taken residence in Ted's body.
- Past-Life Memories: Pennoyer discovers the karmic debt between Ted and George when Grace allows him to hypnotize her and dredge up the memories of her life in Ancient Rome:"Grace allowed me to hypnotize her... and when she was completely 'under' I sent her back through her many lives until she came to this one—and when she paused and began to weep and tremble I knew I'd hit on the incarnation which contained the reason for it all."
- Reincarnation Friendship: Grace, George Arnold, and Ted Eliot are the most recent reincarnations of a trio of souls that have been companions throughout many lifetimes. In some lives the friendship becomes romance (as described below).
- Reincarnation Romance: In one of their many previous lifetimes, Ted and George were members of the Roman army and Grace was the woman they both loved. She favored George, which drove Ted mad with jealousy. Ted killed his friend in the heat of battle and married Grace himself, incurring a karmic debt to George's soul that persisted until their most recent lives.
- Romancing the Widow: Zig-Zagged — when George dies, Grace begins a relationship with his best friend Ted and the two eventually marry. But George and Ted's souls swapped places, so Grace is actually re-marrying George-in-Ted's-body.
- The Teetotaler: The barkeep at the Happy Angler is well aware of Pennoyer's habits, and Jerome notes that the pub has started keeping a supply of soft drinks on hand for his visits.
- Title Drop: Overlaps with I Should Write a Book About This — Pennoyer knows that Jerome will get a kick out of retelling what's transpired between George, Ted, and Grace, then goes on to suggest a title for the eventual story.
- Unfinished Business: George's soul remains in the mortal world because the "Wise Elders" require him and Grace to raise a son. Since a war wound left him paralyzed and unable to father a child in his original body, George's soul was put into Ted's body while Ted's spirit moved on.
- White Magic: Discussed — see Black Magic above.
- Willing Channeler: Overlaps with Demonic Possession — Ted willingly volunteered his body for George's spirit to inhabit.
