Simply Love

“But I survived.” He smiled at all of them. “Many thousands did not.”

It struck A

She felt a wave of gratitude and love.

Her mother got to her feet.

“Matthew and Susan live five miles away,” she said, “and Sarah and Henry scarcely less. It is quite a distance with young children. They are all to stay here tonight since no one wanted to rush away before di

Yes, she had come here to talk, A

But she did not get up. She stared at her hands spread in her lap instead.

“Why?” she asked. “It is what I want to know from all of you, what I came to ask. Why?”

She was appalled at her own words. It was why she had come. But there was surely a better time. When, though? When would be a better time? She had already waited ten years.

Everyone else was appalled too. She could tell that by the quality of the silence that filled the room. But they must have known she would ask the question. Or hadn’t they? Had they thought she would come now that she was married and respectable again to be taken back to the bosom of the family, content that nothing be said about the past?

Her mother sat down again. A

“What did you mean,” she asked, “when you said that you forgave me. We was the word you used. Who was we? And what had I done to need forgiveness?”

Matthew cleared his throat, but it was their father who replied.

“He was a wealthy man, A

A

“You thought I was trying to snare Albert Moore as a husband?” she asked.

“Maybe not quite in the way it turned out,” her father said. “But I daresay you teased him and he lost control. It is what happens. And the man always gets blamed.”

Blamed.

The man always gets blamed.

“I was to marry Henry,” A

“A

“But you must have been able to stop him if you had really wanted to do so, A

“He was stronger than I,” she said. “Much stronger.”

He winced almost noticeably and then frowned. Her mother’s face was hidden in her handkerchief.

“Your mother wanted to go to you,” her father said. “I was going to write to the marquess to ask what his son’s intentions to you were. But what would have been the point? You were a governess there. I would merely have made myself look foolish. And then Sarah told us that she was going to marry Arnold, and he came on the heels of her a

It was, A

Her mother lowered her hands.

“And your father-and we,” she said, “thought it best that you not come back here, A

And for her and Papa and Sarah and Henry and Matthew, A

“But I have missed you dreadfully,” her mother cried. “I have pined for you, A

But not enough ever to come and visit her? A

“He is such a handsome child, A

“David looks,” A

It astounded her that she could admit aloud that David looked like his father without cringing from the very fact that Albert Moore was his father. She glanced at Sydnam, who still stood with his back to the room, and felt a knee-weakening love for him.

“A

A

“A

A

“All things happen for a purpose,” she said, “though sometimes they take their time. If I had married you, Henry, there would not be David, and he has been the most precious person in my life for many years. And if I had married you, I would not have been able to marry Sydnam. And so I would have lost my chance for a lifetime of happiness.”

Matthew cleared his throat again.

“You have done well for yourself, A

“It is strange,” A

“I thought it best, A

“I need to ask you all,” A