“Because he loves you, probably.” Annabelle snorted, making the pronouncement seem more like an annoyance than a blessing.
You’re wrong there.Or rather, if she was right, it wasn’t the sort of love that was strong enough to act on. What good did it do either of them?
“I feel guilty,” Della confessed. “I’d already accepted that he wouldn’t include us. I hate to think I made him compromise his principles for me.”
“Oh, don’t get so worked up. He kept the men’s clubs in, didn’t he? It’s only fair to have yours alongside them, if you ask me.”
This made Della smile to herself. Perhaps itwasonly fair. And think how happy Jane would be when she saw it!An incomparable experience.It was everything they could have asked for.
“You’re right,” she conceded, turning back to Annabelle. “It was kind of him to include us. I’ll send him a copy of my manuscript before I turn it in.”
It would take her ages to write it all out again, but it probably wasn’t a bad idea. She could check for any last errors while transcribing the text.
“There’s one more thing,” Annabelle said. She’d suddenly lost her teasing tone. “I wondered if you might let me add a few lines of my own to your book.”
“You?” Della frowned. Except for the occasional love sonnet to a hapless debutant, Annabelle had never written anything in her life. She had no business cluttering up the guidebook with her own comments now that it was finally finished. “Why should you want to write anything?”
“It isn’t for myself,” Annabelle explained. “It’s for others like me. I just thought…if your book is a guide for ladies, it should include all of us.”
Oh.Perhaps she shouldn’t be quite so quick to dismiss her sister’s request. After all, Dellahadjust included an entry on a place where one could watch surgeries performed on the principle that if even a handful of readers might be interested in it, then it belonged there.
“What would you put in?” Della asked.
“Just places where we could find one another. That sort of thing. Don’t worry, I’d be careful to use language that wouldn’t be too obvious to anyone who wasn’t looking for it.”
“Very well.” Della agreed. “But you have to get it to me soon. I don’t want to delay things.”
“Thank you.” Annabelle clapped her hands, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. “It won’t take me more than a day or two. I already know just what to write.”
Della wished she knew just what to write to Lord Ashton.
Twenty
The Times, Wednesday, April 6, 1842
Lady Ashton’s Divorce
The House of Lords assembled on Tuesday afternoon to hear counsel and evidence in support of Lady Ashton’s divorce bill. Mr. Willis said that he had the honor of appearing at their lordships’ bar on the present occasion as counsel to support the petition of Lady Mary Ellen Ashton, and promised his statement should not occupy the attention of their lordships for too great a time. Lady Ashton accused her husband of adultery, abandonment, gross negligence of her morals and comforts, and gross profligacy.
The petitioner was born to a most distinguished family as Lady Mary Ellen de Villiers, daughter to the Earl of Eastmeath, a member of this House. She became acquainted with Lord Ashton in 1830, and the parties were married that same year. Of this marriage, Mr. Willis was happy to say there was no issue.
He would prove that the parties had lived affectionately together until about April 1833, at which evil hour the lady was shocked to discover that her husband had gambled away his entire fortune and country estate. Following the reception of this calamity, Lord Ashton abandoned his wife, who returned to live in her father’s house in Leicester. Lord Ashton did not perform any of the usual duties of a husband or reside with her again. In 1841, Lady Ashton was informed of acts of adultery on the part of Lord Ashton. Mr. Willis should prove all these statements by evidence at their lordships’ bar and should submit that the case would entitle the petitioner to the relief she sought, namely, that their lordships would pass a bill bestowing a divorce a vinculo matriomii.
Witnesses were then called who proved the marriage and that the behavior of Lady Ashton toward her husband had been in all respects affectionate and proper and that she had not invited such cruel abandonment through any fault of her own.
Mr. Thomas Clinton, of Paul’s Bakehouse Court, Doctors’ Commons, proctor, was called to prove the instructions he had received to bring proceedings before the London Consistory Court in February last to obtain a decree a mensa et thoro. A copy of these proceedings was presented at the bar of the House.
Miss Susan O’Driscoll stated that she was a maid in the house of Lord Ashton from about 1828 to 1833. While in his employ, she discovered letters to his lordship detailing indecencies that had taken place with another woman, without his wife’s knowledge.
Lord Esterhazy—But it is scarcely possible that these letters could have stated that a criminal intercourse was going on between the correspondents.
The witness replied that such was her impression.
Lord Esterhazy—Can you provide these letters to the House? Who was the lady who wrote them?
The witness said she had not taken them from her master’s possession but left them where she found them. She no longer recollected the lady’s name.
Mr. Henry Wilkinson, a gentleman from Leicester, was then called. He was a friend of the parties and had seen Lord Ashton in London following his separation from his wife, in about 1838 or 1839. He had on several occasions witnessed Lord Ashton in the company of other women and had seen many improper liberties pass between them. On one occasion he had seen a lady sitting upon Lord Ashton’s knee and kissing him.
