“You know what I mean, Charlotte.” Theo finally looked at her directly, his expression baffled. “When we marry, you become part of my family. You will scarcely see your own anymore, thank goodness. I know I shall be glad to have less contact with Lady Frank. Your sister can be rather overbearing in her opinions.”
Lottie’s jaw dropped. “How dare you speak of Margaret in such terms!”
“You were literally just blistering my ears about her! I am merely agreeing with you.”
“Iam allowed to complain about my sister from time to time, but I stillloveher. And she loves me. She will forever be a significant part of my life—”
“Truly? I had anticipated that you would see little of her once we were married.”
If Theo had delivered a blow to Lottie’s solar plexus, she could not have been more winded. “Pardon?! Why would I ever—”
“You must see it is for the best.”
“No. No, I truly do not.”
Theo’s expression was thunderous, likely a reflection of her own.
“It is what a wife does,” he said, his voice heating. “A wife leaves her family and cleaves unto her husband.”
“Leaving my family to live with you does not mean I desert them entirely!”
“I knew all your reading had led to expansive ideas about marriage—”
“Pardon?! Are you referring to Wollstonecraft? I have been reading such things for years. How can you only objectnow?!!”
How could she be having this conversation? SheknewTheo, did she not? She had known him for years.
Andthiswas his true opinion? That she abandon her family? Abandon educating her mind?
“I cannot marry a man who expects me to forsake my family. One who does not see me for the person I am.” She forced the words out. “I cannot, andwillnot, choose between a husband and my family.”
He stared down at her, his chest heaving with emotion. “I cannot marry a woman who will not ally herself entirely with me.”
And that was that.
Oh, they carried on for another month, but it was all a sham.
Something had irreparably broken between them.
Six weeks after their conversation in Hyde Park, Lottie sent Theo a letter, officially breaking off their betrothal. She simply could not marry a man who would force her to make such a choice.
Familae primum semper cognosce.
Lottie held firm to the family motto.
But Theo’s perfidiousness was only the primer—the first painful cut into the fabric of her life.
More losses followed.
The following year—right after Lottie’s twenty-first birthday—Cousin Gabriel prevailed on her father to study under the ‘gaze of the Masters’ in Rome. Papa was fiercely proud of his nephew’s artistic talent and eventually that pride overwhelmed the potential ache of Gabriel’s absence.
And so, Gabriel quit Frome Abbey for a palazzo in Rome.
But they all missed him terribly.
That was the problem with their motto, Lottie decided.
Thinking first of family was all fine and well when they were about. But when Margaret, Anne, and little Freddie departed for Lord Frank’s estate near Darlington—or when Papa remained in Town for Parliament, leaving Lottie and Grandmère at Frome Abbey—thethinkingbecame more razor-edged.
