“Excuse me?”
“You didn’t bring me here to clean. All right, fine. But you didn’t bring me here to do anything a wife would do either. I understand that all you really want is a prop. You want someone you can point to and say, this is my wife; I am married. You want to be able to show society that you’re spoken for so that they’ll leave you alone. But you also brought me to your house. I’m not just a doll that you can bring out when you need something to show off and then put away on a shelf when you don’t need me.”
He shook his head, flabbergasted. “This is your defense for coming into my study uninvited? That you’re not adoll?”
“I don’t think I need to defend myself for coming into your study,” she told him, keeping her chin up. She was certain that she was right about this, and she wasn’t going to allow him to make her feel as if she had done something wrong when she hadn’t.
“Why would you be welcome in here?” he demanded.
“Three rules,” she said. “You told me there were three rules, and that if I obeyed them, I could do whatever else I wanted. Isn’t that what you said?”
She saw that he looked flustered. “Well…”
“You did say it, didn’t you?”
“I did, but…but you should have…”
“I’ve obeyed your rules,” she cut him off. “I’ve stayed out of the attic. I haven’t asked you any questions about where you go all the time, even though you arenever home. I never interrupt you when you are working. I’ve done everything you asked. But none of your rules was that I couldn’t come into your office.”
“I shouldn’t have to tell you not to come into my office,” he said. It seemed as if he was starting to recover his composure.
She wasn’t about to let him get away with that. “You as good as told me that Icouldcome in here,” she argued. “The rule was that I couldn’t interrupt you at work. If the door was open, you said, it was all right to come in. And the doorwasopen.”
“You know perfectly well that I meant when I was inside.”
“Arthur, you told me what the rules were for my life here, and I’ve obeyed them,” she said. “I’ve done everything you have asked me to. You’re the one who keeps changing things. You’re the one who’s made it impossible to live this life. You’re gone all the time, and I have no one to talk to. I haven’t seen my sister since the day of our wedding because you and I are supposed to be in our honeymoon period—except that we aren’t enjoying that because you’re never at home, and I’m always alone! All I can do is keep to the rules you give me, and I have, but then you come home and scold me for breaking a rule that isn’t one of the onesyou gave me to follow. You keep changing the way I’m supposed to live. How am I ever to find my footing, Arthur?”
He sighed. “I don’t know what to say,” he said.
“Are you angry with me for the curtains, as well?”
“I think you overstepped by changing them without asking me first.”
“Then what am I allowed to do? What can I do without consulting you about it? Am I to sit around the house all day, waiting on you to come home and knowing that you won’t until long after sunset?”
“I don’t know what to say,” Arthur said again.
“You can’t just keep telling me that you don’t know what to say. You have to figure out what to say. You and I may not be a conventional husband and wife, but you are still my husband. You have to treat me like your wife insomeways, at least—I’m not just a piece of property to be done with as you will.”
“I think you’re being a bit dramatic,” he said. “I haven’t treated you like property.”
“Perhaps not. But I came in here today intending to do something kind for you, and you’ve been nothing but cold to me about it.”
“I need you to stay out of my office when I’m not here,” he said. “Just as I stay out of your bedroom when you aren’t in it. Some things are private.”
“All right,” she agreed. “I can do that—but you mustn’t be upset with me for not having known that was what you wanted since you didn’t tell me.”
“Very well,” he replied. “As long as it doesn’t happen again.” He turned to go.
“Wait a moment,” Isabella said.
He looked back at her.
She hesitated. This hadn’t gone the way she had wanted it to, of course—she had been hopeful that he would appreciate what she had done here, and he clearly hadn’t. But if nothing else, she had gotten his attention, and she wasn’t ready to let go of it. She wanted to make the most of this moment, to get him to treat her differently than he had thus far.
“I won’t come in here again,” she started, “but I don’t want to be left alone as much as I have been. I want to be treated more like…more like your wife.”
He sighed. “We spoke about this, didn’t we?”
