You are the best of wives,Colin thought.
*
“We’re drawing closer,” Talbot said after he inhaled deeply. “Can you smell that?”
“I fear it’s impossible not to.”
“Have you missed it?”
“This smell of the city fog or the city itself?”
“The city,” Colin replied with a smile.
“Not as much as I feared I would.”
“Are you ready to see everyone again?”
“I’m looking forward to seeing my mother, Jane, Mrs. Barlow, and Mister Ed. And Elinor and Lady Louisa.”
“Don’t forget your aunt Isolde,” he said with a serious face, and Lizzie laughed. “If you wish, we can call on your brother on the way?” He offered.
Her face sobered. “No, thank you. I don’t think I’m in the mood for that today. I’m much too tired. Although I’d like to stop at the Mayfair house briefly, if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not.” Talbot frowned, taken aback and confused.
He’d offered to call on Hawkins in order to make his wife happy, but she didn’t seem thrilled by the proposition. It made no sense. She was obsessed with her brother, wasn’t she? Was shestill under the impression that Nicholas was displeased with her marriage?
Talbot thought back on the letter he’d received from Nicholas a month ago, in which Hawkins had inquired about Talbot and Elizabeth and their time at Norwich. Talbot had initially thought the other man was attempting to bridge the distance between them now that they were family, and buoyed by the good mood of his new marriage he’d composed and sent a warm and detailed response but now he had to wonder: had Hawkins needed the information because he hadn’t been in contact with Elizabeth?
“I don’t think you need to worry about him accepting our marriage any longer.” He tried reassuring her. “We’ve been corresponding, your brother and I. I dare say we’re on our way to friendship again.”
“How lovely,” she said in a disinterested tone as she gazed out the window.
“This is where we used to live after Father died,” she told him absent-mindedly after a few minutes.
He pulled the curtain to the side to see the neighbourhood she was talking about and was appalled.
This is so much worse than I thought,he realised.
“It’s a dangerous place,” he said slowly.
“As you yourself can attest, I am more than capable of defending myself,” she said while glancing at his groin with a raised eyebrow.
Oh, poor girl, I wasn’t some low-life scoundrel trying to overpower you, he thought while his whole body went into irrational panic over the thought that something bad could havehappened to her more than four years ago, before he'd ever even had the chance to know her.
“Still, Mary and I mostly went to and from work together,” she added, oblivious to the turmoil her husband was experiencing.
“Why did you choose to settle in this part of the city?” he asked in a strained voice.
“I’ve told you about myinheritance,” she said, “this was what we could afford while still remaining among somewhat respectable folk.”
“Perhaps that was what he wanted, your father,” Talbot mused out loud, “to force you to move, to find a house you could more easily afford in a village somewhere, far away from his family.”
“Perhaps,” she shrugged. “The city was the only home I knew, and my mother probably thought we stood out less here. And Church Street wasn’t so bad.”
Talbot looked at his wife, and she looked like she was attempting to suddenly fold into herself. She was hugging herself with both arms as she stared out the window sadly.
“Back in Belgravia, all the neighbourhood children used to mock me because my father was always gone,” she said, and he sat up at the raw pain in her voice, his own fears immediately forgotten.
