The Lords of Kendal Manor

Chapter 8

~ Kendal Manor, Tuesday 15th February 1814. ~

Alex's week unravelled relatively smoothly after regaining his strength and returning to the Manor. Catherine found and returned from Warton, her position beside him temporarily restored. The weather was finally abating, and his time at Kendal Manor would conclude without further mishap. In fact, it almost concluded without crossing paths with the very sweet Charlotte again, which would've been a relief for Alex, for he felt absolutely wretched.

That was until yesterday, which was why he was holed up in his father's study shuffling papers.

Alex revisited their night together repeatedly, daily even, all the while admonishing himself for it.

His fist came down upon the desk, lending him a moment to reprimand himself once more before perusing the final drafts of Catherine's annulment application.

He was bewildered, pipped at the gate, and utterly annoyed.

Brave Catherine was negotiating her own departure from the marriage while his mother kept the peace between them. His wife's understanding of complex laws, bending protocols and encouraging contempt without crossing the boundaries had been extraordinary, reminding him of what attracted her to him in the initial stages of their courtship.

She was, in so many ways, the perfect wife for him.

For days he toyed with the idea of her original proposition that he keep a mistress. However, this simply resulted in long drawn out daydreams of Charlotte and ended in confused disgust for himself.

In all honesty, he barely even knew the girl.

Whilst she was tempting in the extreme, she might not suit in any other way, but did that even matter if his true wife were to stay and keep him entertained academically?

A groan escaped him. He was a puritan bigot if he expected young Charlotte's aspirations in life to begin and end in his bedroom.

And what was he thinking in any case? He even hinted to his mother that he could take a mistress and keep the marriage. Luckily his mother hadn't hauled him to the laundry and washed his mouth out with soap.

Instead, she perfunctorily insisted such an option did not exist. If Catherine refused to gift him with at least two heirs, all other children would be circumspect and unable to inherit. He was a Marquess, after all.

To make matters worse, Catherine enthusiastically agreed with her.

So, she would move away to the continent with a friend, perhaps the very friend she held dear to her heart all this time, where he'd pension her off for the remainder of her years in exchange for a divorce without opposition.

He smoothed his hand across the paper as he re-read the proposal drawn up for his solicitors.

It would be expensive, but his mother smoothed the way, and Catherine agreed to his frugal requirements.

His hands tore at his hair. He had begun to realise that he cared for Catherine deeply, for her affability alone this last week, perhaps reason enough for his debacle of a marriage to hurt so. Because in truth, he'd expected to fall in love with Catherine from the beginning. Every refusal and every fight since their marriage vows had spliced the hope in his heart a little more each time. The conversation in the carriage had finally split it in two and broke his heart.

Yet the smouldering flame of hope remained. A concern not lost on Alex with regards to Miss Mondrook.

Cursed... he was cursed. Perhaps they'd all become friends one day.