“I don’t want him here…” She looked desperately at her sister. “My letter, I asked you if you wanted to…” She glared at Christopher before turning to her sister and dropping her voice.“You were supposed to come alone, Rose. How can we…” She widened her eyes. “He will try to stop you.”
“Can we not do this out in the hall?” Rose said simply. “Please, Marianne. Let us come inside, and we can talk.”
Lady Marianne hesitated for quite some time. She looked desperately at her sister and then glared at Christopher for longer than was polite. He had known that she would not want him there, but the hate that spewed from that glare had him wondering if perhaps he was not so smart to come at all.
“Fine,” she sighed and took a step back. “You are just lucky that Julian is not here.”
“Where is he?” Rose stepped inside the room.
“He is arriving tomorrow,” Lady Marianne explained. She did not wait by the door for Christopher to walk inside, but crossed the room, seemingly desperate to get away from him. “At which point, we plan to leave. We were going to stay another night, just in case you came and…” She scoffed. “Clearly, there is no need.”
“It is not like that,” Rose said.
“And what is it like?” her sister snapped. She was angrier than Christopher expected, and he knew it had everything to do with him. “I sent you that letter in confidence, Rose. If I had known you were going to show it to… to him, I would not have bothered.”
“Marianne, there is no need for –”
“Why did you even come?” she started up, hysteria now touching at her tone and the way she waved her arms. “To try and drag me back? To change my mind? I am not going to change my mind, Rose. So, if that is what this is, you can go. And take your husband with you.”
“That is enough,” Rose said sharply, cutting through her sister’s exclamation. The effect of the change in tone made Lady Marianne shrink back as if she had been slapped across the face. “I will remind you, Marianne, that you sent me the letter. You asked me to be here. And were it not for me, you would not even be in a position where you needed to run away in the first place.” She folded her arms and raised her eyebrow. “You would be married already.”
Lady Marianne winced. “I… I did not mean…”
“And as for my husband? I would appreciate it if you did not speak to him as you are doing. You may not like that he is here, but seeing as he is, and seeing as he is here to help – as I am, I might add. Perhaps some respect and gratitude are in order?”
Lady Marianne’s initial hysteria was well and truly gone; utterly diminished in the face of Rose’s rebuttal. Rose stood tall and firm, a bulwark against which Lady Marianne’s anger faltered and died.
“I’m sorry,” Lady Marianne said softly, looking away with shame. “I did not mean… I just… I was surprised, Rose. That isall. I did not expect…” She sniffed back tears. “I thought that you were coming alone.”
“She meant to.” Christopher chose that moment to step in. “And she did, until I caught up with her down the road. My being here is my fault, not your sister’s.”
“No,” Rose said. “I asked him to be here.” She then smiled at Christopher, and he smiled back; not done on purpose, but a natural thing that caught him by surprise.
Once again, Christopher was reminded of how much had changed between himself and Rose. She no longer hated him. She no longer despised the idea of them being married. They were far from a perfect couple; they still had some ways to go, but that she was defending him against her sister, and that she so clearly needed him there, was enough.
She wants me here, and that should tell me everything that I need to know.
“I am not here to ambush you,” Christoper assured Lady Marianne. “I am here only to support my wife. Whatever decision she makes, I will support her.”
Lady Marianne looked between the two with confusion. “Rose, what is going on? Are you telling me that you are happy? I thought you hated being married to His Grace?”
“I am not here to speak of my marriage,” Rose said. She did not look at Christopher as she did, but the question certainly brought about an awkwardness. “I came here to talk about you and what you are doing.”
“I won’t go back,” Lady Marianne said. “And you can’t make me.”
“I am not here to force you to do anything,” Rose said. As she spoke, she walked across the room to where Lady Marianne stood in the corner. “I came here to make you see reason.”
“I am seeing reason,” she argued. “Father will never let me marry Julian. He told me as much himself. He wants me to marry some… some lord whom I do not know, who I will never love. He wants it because all he cares about is himself.”
“Let me talk to him,” Rose said. “Come home and I will –”
“No!” Lady Marianne shouted over her. “You can’t change his mind.”
“I did once, remember.”
Lady Marianne shook her head. “And look where that has gotten you. I am sorry, Rose, but there is nothing you can do. This is the only answer.”
“And then what? You and Julian are going to marry? Spend the rest of your lives living in squalor as you are forced to constantly look over your shoulders everywhere we go?”
