“That isn’t entirely true,” he protested, but she didn’t allow him to finish.
“But it ismostlytrue. I’ve heard every word you said during our dances, and God knows I heard you that night in the library at the Fairchild ball. You didn’t consider me good enough to be your duchess, and you still don’t, despite being married to me!“
She pushed herself from the table, stood up, and started pacing the room.
Talbot caught her by the elbow as she walked by his chair and pleaded, “Don’t exert yourself, please. You’re still weak.”
Elizabeth yanked her arm from his grasp and said, “I’m not an invalid,” which made him smile softly and wistfully.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” he said conversationally, “Jane made up the bedroom across the hall from yours for me, so simply knock if you need me.”
“I want to lead separate lives.” Elizabeth tried again.
“I don’t,” he replied readily.
“Many of your set live like that.”
“I’m not like most people,” he said, predictably so.
“I don’t like you!”
“That’s not a prerequisite for marriage.”
“It is for a happy one,” Elizabeth said with both her eyebrows raised. “I have my house, you have yours, why is this an issue?”
“It’s not an issue. It doesn’t matter to me where we live, my house, your house, as long as we’re together.”
“We’re nottogether! You’re a devious, arrogant liar, and this whole farce of a marriage has been a guile so you could fulfil your base desires!” Lizzie raised her voice at the end and ran upstairs,where she threw herself on her bed, dizzy and exhausted from the ill-advised physical and emotional exertion so soon after her illness.
Mary woke her up several hours later, informing her that Doctor and Mrs. Cooper were waiting for her downstairs.
“Why is the Doctor here?” Lizzie groggily asked.
“Your husband sent for him,” Mary said with a sympathetic grimace.
Lizzie narrowed her eyes at her friend. Mary was not as upset with the duke as Lizzie wanted her to be, but she also didn’t try to convince Lizzie to just forgive and forget. She mostly listened and supported her friend without judgment, which was exactly what Lizzie needed.
After Doctor Cooper examined (and reprimanded!) her, Elizabeth invited him and Mrs. Cooper to stay for dinner.The added company will help put distance between Talbot and me, she thought, as she walked the Doctor to her husband’s study where they would undoubtedly discuss her health in great detail.
“Mrs. Cooper is taking tea with your mother, I believe,” the older man told her when they were at the door of the study.
“I think I shall join them,” she managed a small smile and went toward the grand parlour.
It was empty, however, so she continued to the smaller drawing room. As she approached, she heard hushed voices, so she slowed down and tried to make out what they were saying.
Of course, she knew that this was a very inappropriate thing to do, but she didn’t want to interrupt them if they were having an important conversation. She also wanted to know whether they were talking about her.
Most of all, however, she wondered what her mother, who, she was startled to realise only now, hadneverhad a friend outside of the household, was talking about with Mrs. Cooper, who seemed so different from her.
“I recall hearing a story like that one growing up,” Mrs. Cooper was saying.
“I shall never forget it. Her name was Sarah Shenston, and she was 18 when she was hanged. I was only 12 when I heard about it.”
“I cannot imagine the impact such news had on a sheltered young lady,” Mary said with sympathy in her voice.
“It was confusing, to tell you the truth. I knew she’d done a reprehensible thing – taking a child’s life, any child, let alone your own, I couldn’t even fully comprehend it. I also had no idea what made her want to get rid of the child, and no one would tell me. No one ever talked to me about such matters, and I’m afraid I haven’t done a much better job with my own daughter.”
“Well, you know very well what my life has been like,” Mrs. Cooper said in a meaningful tone, and the two women were quiet for a while.
