“What are you doing? Let go of me!” Allan protested, finding himself dragged back into the parlor. “Well, I would expect it of Stephen, but God, Dorothy, you are strangely strong.”
“Why, thank you,” she said with false modesty then helped Stephen thrust him into a chair. “Are you going to explain why Frederica has left you? That is what has happened, isn’t it? She’s gone.”
“Yes, she’s gone,” Allan added quickly, his breathing heavy. He tried to get out of the chair again, but Dorothy blocked his way, keeping him still. For some reason, it was much more of a persuasion to have Dorothy blocking him than it was Stephen, for Stephen would be simpler to brush by.
“Gone?” Stephen repeated in shock. “But the two of you…” He trailed off, shaking his head then started again. “I know things haven’t been easy between you, but had they truly got so bad that she needed to run.”
“I don’t know!” Allan said loudly, unable to keep his anger and fears inside. “I thought we were making progress. I thought she understood that I…” He was the one to stop now.
I was falling in love with her.
He now knew what people meant when they talked about a broken heart. It was this deadening feeling in his chest. He felt nauseous too, even dizzy. His whole body had shut down because of heartbreak.
“I have to find her,” Allan said hurriedly. “I have to talk to her in the light of day, push aside our argument from last night.”
“What was the argument about?”
“She had been out for hours.” Allan waved his hand at the idea. “She received some sort of letter then she left. She said she’d be back for dinner, and she didn’t come back. Clearly, she is hiding things from me. So, I confronted her when she returned. She said…”
Allan couldn’t look at Stephen or Dorothy as he said these words. He chose to look down at the floor instead. “She said she didn’t love me, she didn’t want to be there anymore, and she asked for an annulment.”
“An annulment?” Dorothy covered her mouth in shock. Even Stephen dropped down to the chair beside Allan, apparently unable to find anything to say. “Are you sure that’s what she said?”
“Of course, I’m bloody sure,” Allan snapped, watching as Dorothy looked irked at his tone though she didn’t protest. “It’s what she said. I thought she might have come here. She left in the early hours of the morning.”
Dorothy took a third seat in the room. Much like Allan, she now avoided looking any of the rest of them in the eye though she seemed to be staring more into the distance in deep thought.
“This isn’t right,” she murmured eventually. “This isn’t like Frederica.”
“What do you mean?” Stephen asked, holding onto the calmest tone of the lot of them.
“Running away seems exactly like her, doesn’t it?” Allan reminded his sister, earning a dark glare for his words.
“No, I mean going to meet someone. Leaving the house for hours without explanation and then… asking for an annulment.” She shifted in her seat. “She and I once talked about annulments.”
“Why?” Stephen asked in sudden panic.
“Calm yourself, husband,” Dorothy rolled her eyes. “Like I’d ever want to be separated from you.” The flirtatious gaze that passed between them made Allan’s gut coil in jealousy. “I mean that she and I once talked about it just in terms of if we could ever do it. If we’d consider an annulment to be valid or not. Frederica had said outright that she didn’t think she would ever ask for an annulment. As far as she was concerned, a vow made in church was a vow until the day she died.”
Allan froze.
That’s what she said?
When he raised his head enough to look at Dorothy enquiringly, she firmly nodded, emphasizing the matter.
“It’s what she said, Allan. I don’t believe that same woman would ask you for an annulment. I thought she was happy with you.”
“Some happiness,” Allan muttered distractedly.
Clearly, she wasn’t happy, was she? Despite my best efforts to make her so.
Dorothy stood and started to pace. She was restless, her hands fidgeting constantly.
“Who was the letter from?” Stephen asked calmly.
“What?” Allan replied, not following as he thought of the letter from Frederica in his pocket.
“You said she received a letter from someone and then left shortly afterwards. Who was it from?”
