Simply Love

Susa

They were quiet for a moment, both glad of Frances’s happiness, both rather melancholy for their own sakes.

“And what of you?” A

“Like a duke to sweep me off my feet and bear me off to his castle as his bride?” Susa

“But no one special?” A

“No,” Susa

A

“Only one gentleman,” Susa

“The Bedwyns,” A

Susa

“All this talk of married dukes is depressing me,” she said, her eyes nevertheless twinkling. “Was there no one who was unmarried?”

“No dukes.” A

Susa

“Oh, A

“No one really,” A

She willed herself not to blush.

“All,” Susa

“Yes,” A

Susa

“We were merely friends,” A

“Were you?” Susa

“We were.” A

“But he did not make an offer,” Susa

There was a lengthy silence, during which A

“Do you think,” Susa

“I am not sure,” A

She set her forehead against the curtain for a moment before turning back into the room.

“It was so ungrateful of me,” Susa

“Ah, but we are women as well as teachers, Susa

Needs that could sometimes be horribly damaged but not destroyed.

Susa

“And sometimes,” she said, “they are very hard to ignore. I was very tempted this summer, A

“I don’t know.” A

“What poor, sad spinsters we are,” Susa

Three days later all the boarders returned to school from their holiday and greeted one another-and their teachers-with boisterous good cheer and noisy chatter, and all the new girls arrived with stiff apprehension on their faces, especially the two charity girls who came alone, without even the comfort of parents, sent by Mr. Hatchard, Miss Martin’s London agent. The fees of one of them were being paid by Lady Hallmere-though Claudia did not know her identity, of course.

A

The following morning, the day pupils arrived and classes began.

For the next month life was busy. A

Indeed, life seemed remarkably normal considering the fact that it was becoming increasingly obvious to A

But of course-had she expected a miracle?-she missed her courses for a second time at the end of September and thought about what Sydnam Butler had once said about choices. She had chosen a month and a half ago to lie with him because she had wanted him and he had wanted her and it was their last day together. And that choice had forever changed her life.

It was a terrifying thought.

But there was nothing she could do now to change that choice or avoid its repercussions. She could only move onward with her life.