any possible suspicion that Mary could have killed her husband. If she hated him she wouldn't be having his child. She was dependent on him for financial support and would be more so with a baby.

What Patrick Maloney tells his wife is not revealed in the story. The reader is expected to deduce from the fact that he is drinking unusually heavily that  it is hard for him to tell his wife what is on his mind. This suggests, for one thing, that Patrick hasn't talked to anyone else about it. He is a strong, silent type. It is better for Mary if no one else knows Patrick wanted to leave her. Even the reader is only given suggestions of what he says to her.

"This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won't blame me too much." And he told her.

"So there it is," he added. And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job."

He knows it is a bad time to be announcing that he wants a divorce. She is six months pregnant and the news is devastating. It is important to the perfect-crime plot that no one should have any cause to suspect that Mary had any grievance against Patrick. From his dialogue the reader can see that he is not a cruel man, although he may be cold and selfish. He is not a heavy drinker, which is shown by the fact that Mary is surprised to see him having two strong highballs  before breaking the bad news. He comes home regularly at five o'clock, so he does not appear to be having an affair with another woman. If the police start asking questions about the marital relationship, they will be told by everyone that Mary is a devoted wife and that Patrick is a conservative homebody who always treats his wife with consideration.

The reader may wonder why Patrick wants to leave his wife. The most probable cause is to be found in Mary's own behavior. She is too needy, too clinging, too possessive. He must feel suffocated with so much affection and attention. Her behavioir brings to mind John Collier's story "The Chaser," in which the old shopkeeper who sells love potions and undetectable poisons warns his young customer:

"She will want to know all you do. . . . All that has happened to you during the day. Every word of it. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad. . . .How carefully she willl look after you!"

It is quite likely Patrick told Mary that he was leaving her. However, we do not initially expect such an uncharacteristic development, as the author begins the story innocently enough.

The first inkling we receive that something may be amiss is when Patrick downs his first drink quickly and summarily refuses Mary's offer to get him another. He gets the drink himself, and we are told that it is quite a bit stronger than the previous one.

When he came back, she noticed that the new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whiskey in it.

She watched him as he began to sip the dark yellow drink, and she could see little oily swirls in the liquid because it was so strong.

Patrick continues to remain aloof from Mary, as he refuses every courtesy from her. Finally, he tells her to sit down because he has something important (presumably) to tell her. The author tells us that it didn't 'take long, four or five minutes at most,...' and that Mary was visibly horrified and shell-shocked by what she heard. The next lines are the ones we are interested in.

"So there it is," he added. "And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job."

Notice Patrick reiterates almost apologetically that it's 'kind of a bad time to be telling' Mary whatever he has just told her. Here, he is referring to giving Mary bad news while she is pregnant with their unborn child. This, taken alone, isn't enough information for readers to gauge what Patrick's bad news could possibly be. It isn't until the next line that we receive some sort of an inkling as to what Patrick is talking about.

Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after.

At this point, the author doesn't tell us whether Patrick has found another lover, but the implication is quite clear. He tells Mary that he will provide for her and make sure that she is looked after. To all intents and purposes, Patrick is telling Mary that he is leaving her. In a short story, the author has to skilfully build up to the rising action and subsequent climax fairly quickly. Here, Roald Dahl executes his literary aims expertly. Patrick's next words provide us a more complete picture of the kind of man that he is.

But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job.

In essence, Patrick exhibits the typically callous and self-absorbed characteristics of an unfaithful husband. He certainly treats his wife insensitively throughout their little conversation. So, by the time Mary hits her husband over the head with the frozen leg of lamb and kills him, we may find our sympathies just a little on her side than on Patrick's.

I would use direct quotes of Mary's dialogue to illustrate what I think Patrick said to Mary about why he was tired of their marriage and wanted a divorce. Here are the quotes I would use.

"Tired, darling?"

"I'll get it!" she cried, jumping up.

"I think it's a shame," she said, "that when someone's been a policeman as long as you have, he still has to walk around all day long." He didn't answer. "Darling," she said," If you're too tired to eat out tonight, as we had planned, I can fix you something. There's plenty of meat and stuff in the freezer."

"Anyway," she went on. "I'll get you some bread and cheese."

"But you have to have supper. I can easily fix you something. I'd like to do it. We can have lamb. Anything you want. Everything's in the freezer."

"But, darling, you have to eat! I'll do it anyway, and then you can have it or not, as you like."

Mary can't leave her husband alone for a minute. She is smothering him with her affection. He feels as if he is under a spotlight from the minute he comes home. He is not a little boy. He doesn't want all that mothering. She almost seems to be forcing food down his throat. She doesn't have any internal resources of her own. Patrick is her sole interest in life. She waits for the minute he will arrive home from work in the evening. She devotes herself to him like a slave. She thinks this is the way to retain his love, whereas it is the way to lose it.

In John Collier's short story "The Chaser," the old man who sells undetectable poisons for men to use to kill their wives warns his new customer Alan Austen that if he succeeds in getting Diana to fall in love with him, he will regret it and will want his freedom sooner or later. 

"She will want to know all you do," said the old man. "All that has happened to you during the day. Every word of it. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why you are looking sad....How carefully she will look after you! She will never allow you to be tired, to sit in a draught, to neglect your food. If you are an hour later, she will be terrified. She will think you are killed, or that some siren has caught you."

Mary stays home alone all day. She has nothing to occupy her mind. She expects too much of her husband. She wants him to tell her all about his day's work as a policeman, whereas he would probably like to drink his two drinks and forget about his day. She would like him to "share" with her, but she has nothing to share with him because she has done nothing all day but run the vacuum cleaner and wash some dishes.

As the old man in John Collier's story tells his new customer, this sort of marriage can get worse than boring; it can become maddening. Patrick doesn't want to talk to anybody for awhile. He has been talking to people all day. But Mary has been alone all day and is dying to have some conversation. She is much too dependent, too demanding, too needy. There is an extreme danger in every marriage that it can become a prison if there is too much togetherness, too much mutual dependence. As King Claudius says to Laertes in Shakespeare's Hamlet:

There lives within the very flame of love
A kind of wick or snuff that will abate it . . .

After the honeymoon stage of marriage is over, each spouse discovers that the other is not a saint, angel, god, or goddess, but a mere mortal with a mortal's faults. Some couples get divorced, while others adjust to reality and may stay together all their lives. Patrick seems thoroughly disenchanted with marriage, and expects the new baby to make his confinement even worse because it will be more binding. During the five or so minutes he talks to Mary in a speech which Roald Dahl doesn't feel is necessary to record, Patrick passes on his disillusionment and loss of love to Mary, which results in his getting clobbered over the head with a frozen leg of lamb. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

Mary is caught completely off guard by her husband's news. She has just welcomed him home, put away his coat, fixed his drink, and sat waiting for him to transition from work to home so that she could fully enjoy his presence. She is jolted by his pressing request to sit down so that he can talk to her and then proceeds to shock her:

"This is going to be a big shock to you, I'm afraid," he said. "But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided that the only thing to do is to tell you immediately." And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat still through it all, watching him with puzzled horror.

The text does not detail exactly how he tells Mary or which words Patrick uses, but he is leaving her. The reasons themselves aren't provided, and that isn't all that important, either. His wife is six months pregnant, and Patrick is most concerned about how this will look at his place of employment if Mary doesn't quietly agree. Mary sits in "puzzled horror" trying to process his words and this sudden loss.

As she tries to come to terms with this sudden change, her mind stumbles over trying to hold on to her husband: "Her first instinct was not to believe any of it." So she simply offers to get up and prepare dinner, pretending as though nothing has happened and continuing on with the evening's dinner plans.

Thus, it is when she grabs a frozen leg of lamb (to begin her dinner preparations for her husband) that he commands her to stop because he's "going out," anyway.

Almost as a reflex, Mary takes the frozen leg of lamb and slams it down on top of her husband's head.

The initial shock Mary faces propels events that seem unfathomable for the woman described at the beginning of the story; just as Mary never saw Patrick's news coming, her husband never saw her reaction coming.

We can infer what Patrick tells Mary from the way she treats him. She won't leave him in peace for a moment. She smothers him with affection and attention. For example:

"Anyway," she went on, "I'll get you some cheese and crackers first."

"I don't want it," he said.

She moved uneasily in her chair, the large eyes still watching his face. "But you must eat! I'll fix it anyway, and then you can have it or not, as you like."

We can see that Patrick is a "strong, silent type" of man. He feels suffocated by this woman who insists on mothering him. She has ruined her own marriage by giving her husband too much devotion. It is as if he is the only interest in her life. This is very likely the sort of thing Patrick is trying to explain to her. He is tired of being married to her--and the fact that she is going to have a baby seems to make his situation even worse. He doesn't like this kind of claustrophobic domesticity. The fact that he is a cop suggests that he likes to be outdoors and enjoys action and adventure. When he comes home, it is like being in prison. She is clinging, dependent, needy, prying, solicitous, and slaving. She wants to know all about his day. Perhaps she thinks this is the way to hold her man, whereas in many cases it is a good way for a wife to lose her man.

Patrick must also tell her that there is no other woman in his life. He is not having an affair. This is important to the story because if the police found out the murder victim was having an affair, it would throw suspicion on his wife. They would immediately suspect jealousy as a motive for the killing. Patrick also probably tells Mary that he hasn't discussed his feelings about his marriage or his plans to ask for a divorce with anybody on the force or elsewhere. It is important to the plot that the investigating detectives should not have the slightest suspicion that the marriage was anything but idyllic. This is why Mary is not under suspicion, even though spouses are invariably suspects when a husband or wife is murdered.

Patrick explains to Mary that he wants to keep the subject of divorce absolutely secret because he feels it might hurt his career. Here is what he tells her in open dialogue:

"So there it is," he added. "And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job."

So presumably he has touched on these matters in the part of the story in which he is announcing his decision to get a divorce but which is not revealed to the reader. 

Why doesn't Dahl reveal what Patrick says to Mary during those four or five minutes? For one thing, it isn't Patrick's thoughts and feelings that are important to the plot; it is Mary's thoughts and feelings that are important. They lead to her sudden impulse to hit him with a frozen leg of lamb. Another reason Dahl doesn't reveal much of what Patrick said to Mary is that the reader can see from the characterization of these two individuals that they are not compatible. Most readers must understand, without being told, that Patrick is sick and tired of this needy, clinging, mothering, boring woman who is totally lacking in any independent interests--at least until she hits her husband with the frozen leg of lamb and becomes suddenly transformed from a doormat into a a different, more interesting and more likeable woman.

Mary Malone's behavior changes dramatically before and after her husband, Patrick, announces to her that he is going to leave her. While the news alone are bad enough to shock any wife, Mary is also six months pregnant with the couple's first child. Moreover, she is already used to a life of comfort and tranquility with her husband, a police officer. The thought of losing it all was too much for Mary to bare, as it would be for anyone involved in the same circumstances. 

Prior to the news, Mary is at the cusp of her joy. 

There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did.

She waits patiently and happily for her husband to return from work. She has prepared his favorite drink, and her eyes have a "placid look." This time of the day for her is described as "blissful."

At all times, Mary is completely subservient to her husband. She serves his drink, gets up to get him what he wants, offers him dinner, and continuously "checks" on him, as if trying to ensure that nothing bothers him; that he can achieve a similar state of blissfulness in the home. 

Then came the news. 

.....she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word.

The ensuing reactions are quite expected of someone who is in shock.

Her first instinct was not to believe any of it, to reject it all.

After that, Mary just ignored the situation, continued doing what she was doing, and pretended that "she wasn't listening", denying the entire event to herself, and hoping that, at some point, it turned out that none of it actually happened. 

Mary stood up and said that she will get dinner. She could not feel the floor under her feet. She was still in denial and shock. She also felt nauseous.

These are all very telling details that describe someone who is about to snap. Colloquially, it is a moment known as "the calm before the storm." It is the precise moment before a very explosive event takes place. 

Everything was automatic now-down the steps to the cellar, the light switch, the deep freeze, the hand inside the cabinet taking hold of the first object it met. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at it.

Mary's actions may seem normal, but she is just trying to find mental refuge in her everyday actions. This is an attempt to bring things back to normal, as much as she can.

When she finds the leg of lamb, the reader does not know what she is thinking. However, what she does next is quite shocking. As Patrick comes to her asking her to not fix him dinner, she instinctively strikes her husband on the back of his head with the frozen leg of lamb. The hit is so hard that she kills him on the spot. 

At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. She might just as well have hit him with a steel club.

The rest of her reactions denote even more denial, and perhaps a hint of perverse satisfaction. It is hard to tell, but what is clear is that she "waited" while he stood in place for five seconds, swaying slowly, until he finally crashed to the carpet. Her feelings are described as being "cold" and "surprised". She was still holding the leg of lamb with both her hands as she stared at his body. 

 All right, she told herself. So I've killed him.

All this said, while Mary was at first complaisant, subservient, submissive and entirely devoted to Patrick, the news of his abandonment left her so numb that her first, visceral reaction was to, first, deny everything, and second, strike at him with all her might. The death may have been accidental, as she shows no signs of pre-meditation, but her reaction afterwards shows that a part of her seems to accept the death as something that maybe had to happen, or that simply "just" happened. Was she pleased? It would seem so. Can we tell whether she was still in shock? That is what the reader needs to decide. 

In "Lamb to the Slaughter," we know very little about the dynamics of Patrick and Mary's relationship with the exception of her complete devotion to his needs. She takes care of him, cooks and fetches drinks for him, and appears to love him very deeply. In contrast, in the middle of the story, Patrick returns home from work and delivers some bad news to Mary. Dahl does not reveal the details of this bad news to the reader, but it is clear Patrick wants to end the marriage and seeks a divorce.

The fact that it has played on his mind for some time ("I've thought about it a good deal") and that he intends to provide for her financially suggests Patrick has some consideration for Mary, though not enough to save their marriage. It is also worth noting that Patrick's overriding concern is to protect his professional integrity, as he makes clear to Mary when he says,

But there really shouldn't be any problem. I hope not, in any case. It wouldn't be very good for my job.

This suggests Patrick is less concerned about Mary's feelings than his reputation, and this contributes directly to his murder.